CVS Caremark Publishes New Corporate Social Responsibility Report

WOONSOCKET, R.I., May 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS) today released its 2012 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report, which gives stakeholders an inside view of the company's CSR strategy, priorities and performance on its sustainability goals and CSR initiatives. The report is available online on the company's website at www.cvscaremark.com/CSR.

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The key topics covered in the report represent CVS Caremark's most important issues, which inform how the company defines its CSR strategy and priorities. These include a strong focus on improving patient outcomes through better adherence to prescribed medications; cultivating a more engaged, diverse and healthier workforce; making progress toward the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions; strengthening systems and practices to ensure supply chain responsibility; enhancing quality control processes in pharmacy operations; and building healthier communities through social investments and community engagement initiatives.

The report, titled Reinventing Pharmacy, Creating Sustainable Solutions, underscores how the role of pharmacies – and pharmacists – has evolved and become more instrumental in helping people get and stay healthy. Through its own research and insights, CVS Caremark understands that patients are concerned about the future of health care in the U.S., and they are increasingly turning to their pharmacists for guidance on a range of health care issues, beyond just advice on their medications. The report explains how the company views this as an opportunity to engage patients in many different ways, providing them access to health care resources and education that can help them maintain their own health, especially those patients who are managing chronic diseases that require continual medication.

Beyond patients and customers, CVS Caremark also discusses the opportunity to foster a culture of health and wellness among its colleagues, who represent a diverse workforce of 200,000 individuals. The report details some of the initiatives CVS Caremark is undertaking to encourage colleagues to take personal responsibility for their own health, such as a move to evolve its traditional health care plan into a Plan for Health. 

Environmental stewardship is also critical to how CVS Caremark thinks about health. The link between a healthy environment and personal and public health is evident. For that reason reducing environmental impacts and promoting ways customers and colleagues can participate in those efforts remains a focus. With regard to its carbon footprint, CVS Caremark reports that its carbon intensity has decreased by seven percent since 2010, which is nearly half way to its declared goal of a 15 percent reduction in carbon intensity by 2018.

New to the report is information on CVS Caremark's social audits of contract factories, reflecting a robust process that was implemented in the past two years. This has enabled the company to collect reliable data and begin to report the outcomes of its process.

"When we think about the intent of our corporate social responsibility initiatives, we are mindful of our stakeholders: patients and customers, employees, local communities, regulators, and stockholders," said CVS Caremark President and CEO Larry Merlo. "Our CSR report is the main vehicle we have for sharing details on these initiatives so everyone can have a stronger sense of who we are as a company."

The CVS Caremark 2012 CSR Report was developed in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G3.1 Guidelines, an international framework that is widely recognized and used by organizations to report on their CSR and sustainability performance. Consistent with its 2011 CSR Report, CVS Caremark self-declared its 2012 report as a level B, based on the GRI application levels. For more information on GRI, visit http://www.globalreporting.org.

About CVS Caremark
CVS Caremark is dedicated to helping people on their path to better health as the largest integrated pharmacy company in the United States. Through the company's more than 7,400 CVS/pharmacy stores; its leading pharmacy benefit manager serving more than 60 million plan members; and its retail health clinic system, the largest in the nation with more than 600 MinuteClinic locations, it is a market leader in mail order, retail and specialty pharmacy, retail clinics, and Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plans.  As a pharmacy innovation company with an unmatched breadth of capabilities, CVS Caremark continually strives to improve health and lower costs by developing new approaches such as its unique Pharmacy Advisor program that helps people with chronic diseases such as diabetes obtain and stay on their medications.  Find more information about how CVS Caremark is reinventing pharmacy for better health at info.cvscaremark.com.

SOURCE CVS Caremark