Walgreens Boots Alliance Publishes Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2016

February 27, 2017
PDF Version

Company-wide data collected across all businesses for the first time

Report Highlights

  • Walgreens Boots Alliance was honored with the United Nations Foundation's Global Leadership Award in 2016 for its commitment to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals through its support for wellbeing around the world
  • Walgreens Boots Alliance's involvement with charitable and community groups in fiscal 2016 included raising $20 million through its participation in Red Nose Day, a fundraising campaign to assist children who are most in need
  • Walgreens Get a Shot. Give a Shot.® program has helped provide more than 15 million life-saving vaccines over three years
  • In partnership with Vitamin Angels, the company neared its goal of helping to provide 100 million children and pregnant women in at-risk populations in the USA and in other countries with essential vitamins and minerals to combat malnutrition
  • The company has raised funds since 2011 for the EORTC Cancer Research Fund to create the first pan-European Biobank for colorectal cancer, which had enrolled 1,100 patients from 11 European countries by the end of fiscal 2016

DEERFIELD, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (Nasdaq:WBA) today released its annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report for fiscal 2016, highlighting the company's ongoing support for people in its communities and workplaces, and overall progress toward its environmental and social goals.

Walgreens Boots Alliance strives to be a global leader in caring for communities and the environment, reflecting its purpose to help people across the world lead healthier and happier lives. The report, covering the fiscal year that ended 31 August 2016, will be launched at an event tonight at the Knight Conference Center in the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

Walgreens Boots Alliance made significant strides in CSR accountability in 2016, reporting metrics that will serve as the baseline for evaluating future progress. For the first time since it was created in December 2014, the company collected data across all of its businesses, on charitable contributions, carbon emissions, energy usage, waste disposal, employee retention and employee gender.

"Our company is full of inspiring stories of social and environmental responsibility," said Ornella Barra, Walgreens Boots Alliance co-chief operating officer and leader of Corporate Social Responsibility. "I feel immensely proud of these initiatives, which show how much our people care and which are embedded in the work we do every day. We have set ourselves 12 challenging goals connected with our business activities and are excited to report on our progress."

In the 2016 report, the company maps its CSR goals to the United NationsSustainable Development Goals. Walgreens Boots Alliance's commitment to those targets was recognized last year when the United Nations Foundation honored the company with its Global Leadership Award. The award highlighted, in part, the accomplishments of Walgreens highly impactful Get a Shot. Give a Shot.® initiative, which provides life-saving vaccines to children in developing countries through the Foundation's Shot@Life campaign.

Walgreens Boots Alliance has built on the strong CSR tradition of its legacy companies, leveraging its global scale to make a real difference in programs to reduce environmental impact and to champion health and wellbeing around the world. The company has identified 12 strategic goals connected to its business and to its four key CSR areas: Community, Environment, Marketplace and Workplace.

Walgreens Boots Alliance's senior leaders are committed to CSR, an essential part of building trust in the company's brands. Stefano Pessina, executive vice chairman and chief executive officer, commented:

"We truly embrace our corporate and social responsibility, and we embed it in how we operate our company as a sustainable and profitable enterprise. As a healthcare champion, for us there is a strong commercial as much as moral imperative to be a good corporate citizen. Assessment, measurement and monitoring of social and environmental impact are built into our operating initiatives, procedures and our consideration of new contracts or corporate opportunities. Delivery against these policies is implemented in our daily work, in our businesses around the globe."

Notes to Editors:

About Walgreens Boots Alliance

Walgreens Boots Alliance (Nasdaq: WBA) is the first global pharmacy-led, health and wellbeing enterprise.

The company was created through the combination of Walgreens and Alliance Boots in December 2014, bringing together two leading companies with iconic brands, complementary geographic footprints, shared values and a heritage of trusted health care services through pharmaceutical wholesaling and community pharmacy care, dating back more than 100 years.

Walgreens Boots Alliance is the largest retail pharmacy, health and daily living destination across the USA 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 400,000* people. The 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 over 13,200* stores in 11* countries as well as one of the largest global pharmaceutical wholesale and distribution networks, with over 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, Botanics, Liz Earle and Soap & Glory.

In October 2016Walgreens Boots Alliance received the United Nations Foundation Global Leadership Award for its commitment to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. The company also 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 2016, using publicly available information for AmerisourceBergen.

** For 12 months ending 31 August 2016, using publicly available information for AmerisourceBergen.

(WBA-GEN)

 

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.
Media Relations
USA
Michael Polzin, +1 847-315-2935
or
International
Laura Vergani, +44 (0)207 980 8585

 

Source: Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.

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