Walgreens Boots Alliance Publishes 2017 Corporate Responsibility Report
Walgreens Boots Alliance (Nasdaq:WBA) on Friday published its 2017 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report covering the company’s progress during the fiscal year ended 31 August 2017. The report shows how the company is setting the pace on sustainability issues from health care and combatting climate change to promoting diversity and fostering inclusion.
Leveraging its scale and business values as well as the strong CSR heritage of its legacy companies, Walgreens Boots Alliance made significant strides during fiscal 2017, hitting important milestones and setting out new commitments within its 12 CSR goals. The company has also enhanced transparency regarding its impact on communities and the environment.
In the report Walgreens Boots Alliance, formed in 2014, presents comparable data for its operations across the world for the first time, using fiscal 2016 data as a baseline. The data show the results of the company’s efforts to reduce emissions and waste, further diversity and inclusion and contribute to groups that work on addressing health care and other pressing global issues.
“Corporate Social Responsibility sits at the heart of Walgreens Boots Alliance. Throughout 2017, we continued to demonstrate how we as a company embed our CSR values in everything we do,” said Ornella Barra, Walgreens Boots Alliance co-chief operating officer and chairman of the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee. “I am immensely proud of the positive impact our initiatives have on millions of lives around the world. By building on our successes and creating long-term collaborations with partner organizations, we aim for the biggest possible positive impact in our areas of focus. For us, this is quite simply the right thing to do.”
Through its CSR strategy and goals, Walgreens Boots Alliance continues to support the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Walgreens Boots Alliance is committed to aligning its activities to support all 17 of the SDGs, which include goals to end poverty, take action on climate change, improve access to health and education, build strong institutions and more.
“We are dedicated to CSR because we see it as driving a sustainable and profitable enterprise,” said Stefano Pessina, Walgreens Boots Alliance executive vice chairman and CEO. “As a health and wellbeing company, we operate in markets where ethical behavior is of utmost importance. We strive to be a responsible neighbor in the communities we serve, to protect the planet for the future, to do business with integrity and to treat our people and our customers with dignity and respect.”
Highlights from the 2017 CSR Report include:
- Walgreens expanded programs to combat opioid abuse through medication disposal kiosks (more than 150 tons of unused medications have been collected and disposed of since 2016) and through work to make naloxone, a lifesaving opioid antidote, available without requiring a prescription at its pharmacies in 45 U.S. states.
- Boots UK employees and customers have raised more than £15 million ($24 million) for Macmillan Cancer Support over eight years, and more than 2,200 Boots Macmillan Information Pharmacists have been trained to offer support to cancer patients and their loved ones.
- Walgreens expanded its partnership with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, including training for pharmacists to help patients who are taking blood cancer medication.
- Walgreens support of the Red Nose Day annual campaign raised more than $20 million with 10.6 million noses sold, which helps to provide nutritious meals, essential medicine, clean water and other vital aid and services to children in need in the U.S. and in other countries.
- During fiscal 2017 Walgreens Boots Alliance decreased its total carbon footprint by 6.5 percent from the previous year, through energy efficiency programs and projects.
- During fiscal 2017 Boots UK achieved its CO2 reduction target three years ahead of schedule, cutting emissions by 33 percent in Boots stores that were open in 2005.
Walgreens Boots Alliance will continue to report on its CSR achievements and progress on an annual basis. Additional information on the CSR report and the company is available at www.walgreensbootsalliance.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: All statements in this release that are not historical, including goals for and projections of future results, the expected execution and effect of our Corporate Social Responsibility strategies and initiatives and the amounts and timing of their expected impact, constitute forward-looking statements that are based on current societal, market, competitive and regulatory expectations. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, assumptions and uncertainties, known or unknown, including those described in Item 1A (Risk Factors) of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 31 August 2017 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended 30 November 2017, each of which is incorporated herein by reference, and in other documents that Walgreens Boots Alliance files or furnishes with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially. These statements speak only as of the date they are made and, except to the extent required by the law, Walgreens Boots Alliance does not undertake, and expressly disclaims, any duty or obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statement after the date of this release, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions or otherwise.
Notes to Editors:
About Walgreens Boots Alliance
Walgreens Boots Alliance (Nasdaq: WBA) is the first global pharmacy-led, health and wellbeing enterprise. The company's heritage of trusted health care services through community pharmacy care and pharmaceutical wholesaling dates back more than 100 years.
Walgreens Boots Alliance is the largest retail pharmacy, health and daily living destination across the U.S. and Europe. Walgreens Boots Alliance and the companies in which it has equity method investments together have a presence in more than 25* countries and employ more than 385,000* people. The Walgreens Boots Alliance, company is a global leader in pharmacy-led, health and wellbeing retail and, together with the companies in which it has equity method investments, has more than 13,200* stores in 11* countries as well as one of the largest global pharmaceutical wholesale and distribution networks, with more than 390* distribution centers delivering to more than 230,000** pharmacies, doctors, health centers and hospitals each year in more than 20* countries. In addition, Walgreens Boots Alliance is one of the world’s largest purchasers of prescription drugs and many other health and wellbeing products.
The company’s portfolio of retail and business brands includes Walgreens, Duane Reade, Boots and Alliance Healthcare, as well as increasingly global health and beauty product brands, such as No7, Soap & Glory, Liz Earle, Sleek MakeUP and Botanics.
The company ranks No. 1 in the Food and Drug Stores industry of Fortune magazine's 2017 list of the World's Most Admired Companies.
More company information is available at www.walgreensbootsalliance.com.
* As of 31 August 2017, using publicly available information for AmerisourceBergen.
** For 12 months ending 31 August 2017, using publicly available information for AmerisourceBergen
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