Anti-Deforestation Commitment
Our efforts to transform the health of our planet include reducing our consumption of natural resources. To address deforestation, we focus these efforts on the areas of our most material impacts — responsibly sourcing paper and palm oil. In 2020, we reached our goal to source sustainable palm oil for all our store brands products as 100% of our store brand suppliers of items containing palm oil have become members of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) or have obtained Rainforest Alliance certification. Additionally, when new store brand items contain palm oil, suppliers must demonstrate proof of required certification. We are also committed to reducing the impacts of our operations, including through paper usage, and have set a goal to reduce our environmental impact by at least 50% by 2030. Paper reduction will play a key role in achieving this goal. Our Commitment includes deforestation criteria which span across the following key components:
Environmental considerations: Deforestation and conversion of natural ecosystems
CVS Health believes that through a combination of consumption reductions and responsible sourcing we can achieve our business objectives while maintaining a strong position on deforestation and the conversion of natural ecosystems. Specifically, we focus on zero net deforestation associated with timber in our direct operations and zero net and zero gross deforestation associated with palm oil in our supply chain as they are the most material to our operations. The combination of remote work and video conferencing has proven that digital means have advanced sufficiently to render paper handouts, for example, obsolete. Therefore, we aim to reduce the paper use throughout our operations and continue to examine related goals and targets to ensure they are material to both our sustainability mission and our operations.
Social considerations: Promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment
Women are heavily involved in forest work but frequently disadvantaged. Through our alignment to Goal 5: Gender Equality, of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we are committed to ensuring gender equality through our value chain. Communication on our progress against the UN SDGs can be found in our annual CSR Report.
UN International Labour Organization principles
At CVS Health we are fundamentally committed to respecting and supporting internationally recognized human rights. Our Human Rights Policy applies to applies to everyone in the company, including the Board of Directors and all colleagues when doing work for CVS Health. This Policy also applies to our business partners, vendors and partners across our supply chain, and aligns to widely accepted standards of fair treatment and non-discrimination including those set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR); International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR); and the International Labour Organizations (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.
Legal considerations: No sourcing of forest risk commodities from unknown/controversial sources
As an integrated health care company helping people on their path to better health, it is our goal to provide high quality products that are safe for our customers, communities, and the planet. We ensure that paper used in our operations and palm oil used in store brand products come from sustainable sources. Additionally, we are working with our supply chain partners to continue exploring other areas for improvement regarding forest commodity sourcing.
In addition to these commitments, we are working on aligning our deforestation commitment with those of the Tropical Forest Alliance. We recognize that climate action is not isolated to carbon emission reductions, and instead requires a multi-tiered approach including both the reduction of our emissions and the conservation of natural resources, forestry, and water principal among them.