Walgreens Boots Alliance Lowers Carbon Footprint by 15.3%

(Photo: Walgreens Boots Alliance published their 2018 Corporate Social Responsibility Report today. Credit: Walgreens Boots Alliance)

by | Feb 12, 2019

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Walgreens Boots Alliance

(Photo: Walgreens Boots Alliance published their 2018 Corporate Social Responsibility Report today. Credit: Walgreens Boots Alliance)

Walgreens Boots Alliance reduced its carbon footprint by 15.3% over two years, cut energy usage, and achieved several waste diversion milestones last year, according to the company’s 2018 Corporate Social Responsibility Report published today.

The company, which owns pharmacy brands including Walgreens, Boots, and Duane Reade, is the largest pharmacy, health, and daily living retailer in the United States and Europe.

“Due to energy consumption and waste generation by our stores, distribution centers, employees and fleets, Walgreens Boots Alliance has a significant impact on the environment,” the 2018 report notes. “However, our size also provides us with the ability to drive large-scale initiatives to reduce that impact.”

Between fiscal year 2016 — the baseline for the company’s CSR performance data — and 2018, Walgreens Boots Alliance reduced its carbon footprint by 15.3%.

The new CSR report describes the company’s emissions reduction strategy as including the implementation of large-scale initiatives such as a global process to measure and monitor Scope 1, Scope 2, and some Scope 3 emissions. “The strategy involves investment in energy and fuel efficiency programs in office buildings, distribution centers, stores, and transportation fleets,” the report noted.

In 2018, the Walgreens diverted 93% of waste from distribution facilities in the United States and Puerto Rico. In addition, the Walgreens reported diverting more than 3.4 million pounds of safe, unused toiletries, food, and household items from landfills by donating these items to Feeding America, the country’s largest domestic hunger-relief and food rescue organization.

Recycling was also a priority. In fiscal year 2018, Walgreens retail pharmacies finished implementing a new process for returning disposable patient information to distribution centers for recycling, according to the CSR report. Starting in August last year, the document destruction firm Shred-It began removing documents from more than 8,000 pharmacies.

“Between December 2016 and August 2018, this recycling process has translated to more than 317,000 saved trees and more than 129 million saved gallons of water,” the report said.

The full report is available here.

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