CDP has added ocean-related disclosure to its sustainability reporting platform, expanding the environmental data companies can provide through the 2026 disclosure cycle.
The new category will allow companies reporting through CDP to disclose ocean-related dependencies, impacts, risks, and opportunities. New questions will cover areas including target setting, supply chain engagement, environmental policies, and board-level oversight of ocean issues.
CDP’s 2026 disclosure cycle opens this month. The organisation’s 2026 disclosure guidance says its questionnaire is expanding to ocean for the first time, alongside enhanced forests scope and improved plastics questions. CDP says more than 540 capital markets signatories, representing more than $110tn in assets, are requesting more than 43,000 organisations to disclose data in 2026.
Oliver Tanqueray, CDP head of ocean, said: “The ocean is fundamental to both planetary and economic health.”
The addition widens the ESG reporting agenda beyond climate, water, forests, biodiversity, and plastics. Companies with direct marine exposure, including shipping, seafood, ports, tourism, offshore energy, coastal infrastructure, chemicals, packaging, and consumer goods supply chains, may see ocean-related disclosure become more visible in investor, customer, and procurement scrutiny.
Ocean exposure can also sit several steps away from the coastline. Marine health is affected by plastics, wastewater, chemical use, agricultural run-off, shipping emissions, resource extraction, and coastal development. Supply-chain questions can bring ocean risk into sectors that do not describe themselves as marine businesses.
CDP’s expansion reflects a wider movement in sustainability reporting from single-issue climate disclosure towards nature, biodiversity, water, and ecosystem dependencies. With greenhushing rising as ESG claims face scrutiny, more granular disclosure frameworks increase the pressure to support environmental statements with specific data rather than broad commitments.
Board oversight is a notable part of the new category. Environmental risk is increasingly treated as a governance concern, not only a sustainability-team responsibility. Directors are being asked to understand how nature-related dependencies affect operations, financing, supply continuity, insurance, regulation, and reputation.
The supply-chain dimension will be demanding. Many companies still struggle to collect reliable Scope 3 emissions data, let alone map ocean-related dependencies and impacts across suppliers, logistics providers, raw materials, packaging, and waste streams. The new CDP questions may expose data gaps before they produce comparable performance metrics.
Disclosure systems often shape internal management before they shape external rankings. Once companies know they will be asked about ocean issues, ownership, exposure mapping, policy review, and supplier engagement tend to become more structured.
Investors and lenders are also broadening their view of environmental risk. Climate remains central, but nature-related loss can affect asset values, commodity prices, supply reliability, and regulatory exposure. Ocean data may become especially relevant for companies dependent on fisheries, coastal infrastructure, marine transport, tourism assets, or products associated with plastic leakage.
Reporting burden will remain a concern. Sustainability teams are already managing multiple frameworks, including ISSB, ESRS, TNFD alignment, climate transition planning, and customer-specific questionnaires. CDP’s single corporate questionnaire is designed to reduce fragmentation, but each new topic still requires internal evidence, process, and governance.
The 2026 ocean category is both a data development and a signal of where ESG scrutiny is moving. Companies that wait until ocean disclosure becomes mandatory, scored, or demanded by key customers may find that mapping dependencies takes longer than expected. Risk identification, supplier engagement, and clear board visibility are likely to be the first practical steps.
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