01 | Alternative to CDP
Looking for an alternative to CDP?
First, hats off to CDP. The Carbon Disclosure Project built the world's largest environmental disclosure system and moved this whole market forward.
Mycelium is not a like-for-like replacement, and we won't pretend it is. We solve a different, narrower problem: making carbon emissions data open, comparable, and free to find. Here is an honest look at where we are, and are not, an alternative.
02 | The honest version
Where Mycelium excels
What Mycelium does differently
- It is free to disclose. We never charge a company to share its emissions. CDP's disclosure process carries an administration fee for many respondents.
- The data is open-access. Anyone can search the full database for free. We don't throttle or block users for reading more than a handful of records a day.
- We find data you have already published. We actively gather emissions that companies have disclosed in public reports, so coverage extends well beyond firms that fill in a questionnaire. Your figures may already be on Mycelium.
- Carbon only, so it is fast. We collect emissions data and nothing else, which strips the disclosure process down to minutes rather than weeks.
- Every company is benchmarked and scored. The Mycelium Score ranks emissions against sector peers, because a footprint means little until you can see how it performs against others.
- Machine-readable by default. Everything is available as structured data and via an API, free for academics and charities, so the numbers are easy to use in tools and analysis.
Where CDP excels
What CDP does that we don't
- Broader environmental scope. CDP covers climate change, water security, and forests through detailed questionnaires. Mycelium is carbon emissions only.
- A managed disclosure framework. CDP runs a structured annual reporting cycle aligned to recognised standards. We aggregate public data, we do not operate a formal disclosure programme.
- Investor and regulatory recognition. CDP disclosure is requested by thousands of investors and large buyers, and feeds established reporting frameworks. Submitting to Mycelium is not a substitute for that formal reporting.
- Supply-chain engagement programmes. CDP runs structured supplier engagement on behalf of major purchasers. We help you find and compare suppliers, but we don't run those managed programmes.
- An established scoring methodology. CDP's A to F grade is recognised by many stakeholders. The Mycelium Score is newer, and focused purely on emissions performance against peers.
03 | A gap worth filling
Proud to fill the gap CDP has left
CDP started as a not-for-profit with openness at its core, and for years a great deal of its data was freely available to anyone who wanted it. Over time that openness has narrowed, and the open dataset many of us once relied on is no longer there.
In June 2026, CDP announced it is splitting into two organisations: a commercial business backed by the private equity firm Permira, and a separate CDP Foundation. It is a significant moment, and it points the organisation further towards paid data products, and further from the open access this market still badly needs.
We say this with respect. CDP moved the whole field forward, and more than 22,000 companies disclosed through it last year. But the transparency of emissions data should not sit behind a paywall, and someone has to keep it open. That is the gap Mycelium exists to fill.
And it should cost nothing to be transparent. Disclosing through CDP carries an administration fee large enough to quietly price many smaller businesses out of taking part. We never charge a company a penny to disclose its emissions, and we never will, because an SME's carbon data matters just as much as a multinational's.
04 | The bottom line
Use both. They do different jobs.
If you need a full environmental disclosure framework that investors and regulators already recognise, CDP is built for that, and we'd point you there.
If you want your carbon emissions to be open, comparable, scored against your peers, and free to find, that is exactly what Mycelium is for. Many companies do both: they disclose formally, and they make sure the numbers are also open and benchmarked here.
One more thing worth knowing. CDP offers a climate score too, but some major oil and gas companies sit on a 'B' under its A to F system, which isn't a credible decarbonisation signal. Our scoring is built around emissions intensity against sector peers, so the leaders and the laggards are easier to tell apart.
05 | Contact
Let's build what the world needs, today
If you're interested in working together to solve the greatest challenge the world faces, get in touch.
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