Sustainable materials and products
Thinking strategically about the materials we use throughout our business operations
Across our operations and in our store brand products, we are working to improve material sustainability — partnering with our supply chain teams, third-party experts and our peers to identify and scale solutions. Learn more about our commitments in our Packaging Sustainability Policy.
- 345M+ paper receipts eliminated through digital or no receipt selections by consumers in our retail locations
- 18M+ sheets of paper saved through Print+ program in office sites since 2014
- 13% of paper used in store brand packaging is from sustainably certified sources
- 17K+ lbs. of food waste diverted through new composting program at Woonsocket HQ
- $140M in unsaleable products donated to local communities and diverted from waste streams
- 1.9M+ lbs. of unwanted or expired medications collected through safe disposal programs
Plastic
Plastic impacts human health through the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. At CVS Health, we continue to reduce plastic use across our operations, while acknowledging that plastic is needed for safe care delivery and product quality. We are eliminating or using less plastic where we can, replacing plastic with alternative sustainable materials, and identifying new strategies to increase recyclability and safer end-of-use disposal of the materials we use. Our suppliers and customers have joined us to be part of the solution.
Learn more about our plastic footprint
Learn more about our store brand packaging sustainability efforts
CVS Health is excited to deepen its collaboration with the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag, managed by Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy. In 2025, the Consortium will shift from experimentation to implementation of proven bag waste reduction solutions. Building upon the successes of the 2023 Bring Your Own Bag Pilots in Denver, Colorado, and Tucson, Arizona, the Consortium and CVS Health will scale bag waste reduction efforts in a larger market, helping reduce plastic waste alongside hundreds of retailers and local stakeholders.
Americans fill more than four billion prescriptions each year. The classic, amber plastic medication bottle represents a significant opportunity for impact in reducing plastic waste. We continue to assess sustainable solutions associated with plastic medication bottles, including opportunities to increase recyclability, as they are often too small to be processed in traditional recycling facilities.
To reduce waste behind the pharmacy counter, in 2024 half of our pharmacy chain began testing an initiative to recycle stock bottles, the containers that carry medications to our pharmacies, as we work to achieve greater simplicity for our colleagues and higher customer engagement.
In our mail order pharmacy operations, we are actively exploring sustainable packaging alternatives and optimized shipping efficiencies that protect product quality and safety. We continue to optimize our capabilities and network to reduce the distance between our patients and pharmacies.
On average, nearly two million medications shipped in our PBM mail order operations require temperature-controlled shipping. In 2024, we enhanced our cold chain shipping abilities at our San Antonio, Texas fulfillment center, reducing the distance that packages need to travel to their destination and eliminating the additional packing material that had been required for longer distances.
Paper
Our efforts to transform the health of our planet include reducing our consumption of natural resources. We are committed to reducing the impacts of paper usage in our operations.
Our customers are more digitally engaged than ever. In 2016, we began offering a digital receipt opt-in for CVS Pharmacy customers. Since 2021, we have expanded this option to allow customers to choose a digital receipt, or no receipt, at nearly every sales transaction. Thirty-three percent of customers are now choosing a digital receipt or none at all. In 2024, this resulted in the elimination of 345 million paper receipts.
We also ensure our receipt paper at all CVS Pharmacy locations is recyclable and free of ingredients with harmful health impacts. Our receipts have been BPA-free since 2012 and BPS-free since 2020.
Over more than a decade, we have continued to expand our managed print solution, Print+, to replace network printing systems in CVS Health offices, reducing paper consumption and adding a layer of security to print jobs. With over 700 Print+ printers currently enabled across more than 80 corporate office locations, the program has saved over 18 million sheets of paper and avoided more than $8.5M in paper and toner cartridge costs since 2014.
In 2024, CVS Health launched QR code log-on instructions for all new hire technology devices. Instructions to get started with us are always readily available digitally and this initiative has reduced paper document production by an estimated 320,000 color pages per year.
Waste management
We continue to identify opportunities to eliminate waste across the enterprise — often eliminating additional costs and operational inefficiencies at the same time.
Our specialty pharmacy operations provide over nine million medication packages by mail each year for patients managing complex and chronic conditions. Small changes can make a big difference in packaging materials, and we’re actively exploring sustainable alternatives and optimizing shipping efficiencies.
We continuously optimize our capabilities and network to reduce the distance between our patients and pharmacies, as well as the carbon footprint for those shipments. We also continue to seek out high-performance packaging alternatives to protect our patients' orders safely.
In 2023, we launched a new collaboration with Interface to divert flooring materials in our retail locations from landfills at the time of their replacement. In 2024, more than 580,000 pounds of carpet were recycled through retail construction projects.
We are enhancing our waste practices at corporate sites and engaging colleagues in the process.
Following waste audits at two corporate campuses, in late 2024, we introduced composting for organic waste in the cafeterias at our Rhode Island campus and replaced plastic service ware with fully compostable alternatives. Early results indicate successful adoption of the program by corporate colleagues, and an estimated 17,000 pounds of food waste diverted. Waste audits will be conducted in 2025 to validate results and we will look to expand the program to our Hartford, Conn. campus. We are striving for TRUE Zero Waste certification as we implement and expand programs.
We refurbish, redeploy, resell and recycle IT equipment, with our more than 300,000 colleagues returning an average of 12,000 items per month. A “scan and go” process enables colleagues to easily and safely return computers and peripherals while avoiding the use of extra material to ship gear – reducing the risk of equipment damage and boosting recovery rates and timeframes.
In 2024, our IT and Asset Management teams supported the diversion of more than 117,000 items from landfill.
When products in our stores can no longer be sold — whether it’s due to seasonality, product discontinuation or an approaching expiration date — we pursue liquidation, donation or recycling whenever possible.
At the same time, our merchandising teams collaborate with manufacturers to optimize the volume of these products that come into our stores. In 2024, we increased the donation of unsaleable products by 4%.
Our redeploy program minimizes returns and waste of pharmaceutical products by reallocating inventory to retail pharmacy locations where it is more likely to be sold before expiration, reducing the need to re-purchase product. Our current program, focused on product that does not need to be refrigerated, redeployed more than 250,000 orders in 2024, generating $1 billion in savings and preventing the disposal of valuable prescription medication. Next, our teams will explore expansion of the program with new technologies and reusable cases that would allow us to redeploy refrigerated products.
Product offerings
Our holistic approach to customer health and well-being includes offering a variety of products — from personal and health care to food and beverage items — that are free from unwanted ingredients and take environmental impacts into consideration. Learn more about our sustainability strategy for store brand products below.
CVS Health is committed to the ethical treatment of animals as part of our corporate social responsibility. In 2015, we announced a commitment to source cage-free eggs across our retail chain by 2025. We achieved this goal at the end of 2022. All eggs now offered in our stores are cage-free or better (free-range).