CSR doesn’t halt growth as evidenced by CVS Caremark Sustainability Report

Some critics of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) business programs state that the fundamental confines of the platform impede a companies for expansion efforts and contradict free-market enterprise. It’s a broad and somewhat vague complaint but does get voiced frequently in both the private and public sector. I actually think it’s a complete red herring as I’ve read so many sustainability reports that document the key CSR achievements of companies large and small as they expand. In many circumstances the critical planning and structure that facilitates business growth should also be expertly interwoven with developing CSR strategies as part of those foundations. Moreover the blend of legislation, public pressure and expertise demonstrates that businesses that ensure CSR strategy is important are garnering more customer and client allegiance along with better long-term growth potential, not vice versa.

As I read the reports from large companies I like to highlight the corporations that seem to understand this best based on industry sector, retailing is one such arena where the public interaction can be far more frequent and just due to visibility the average man/woman in the street gets a better feeling of the true size of the company because they see locations of a name that they recognize in most towns that they visit. Similar perceptions/public interactions are much more difficult in industries such as financial, pharmaceutical, engineering and manufacturing. However almost all of us have at least occasional need to visit retailers and observe their operations firsthand. As you’d probably expect energy use is at the very top of the tree for most retailers to plan to control and improve and lower their carbon impact. You can’t help but walk into a large retailer in the height of summer or deepest winter and occasionally consider just how much energy is being used to light, heat or cool so many thousands of square feet. So it was that I noticed the new CSR 2010 report from CVS Caremark who are placing extreme focus on energy use while the company continues its aggressive expansion.

CVS Caremark (formerly CVS pharmacy) have expanded significantly in recent years now operating more than 7,000 locations of it drug stores throughout the US which employ over 80,000 generating annual revenues in excess of $55 billion. 7,000 retail boxes naturally consume a great amount of energy in the company have announced a target to reduce their carbon footprint by 15 percent (from 2010 basline) by the year 2018.

In all, the company reports that they operate upon 69.7 million square feet of floor space versus 67.8 million square feet a year earlier and cite .026 metric tons of CO2 equivalent per square foot of retail space per year. Even with the year-over-year expansion the company managed to reduce their CO2 equivalent emissions by 0.8% down to 1.778 million tons despite the floor space expansion of just under three percent. The company feel this demonstrates that the targeted reductions are achievable even allowing for expansion. The CVS report looks at all forms of CO2 emissions including support offices energy use, deliveries and corporate travel needs but it is the retail outlets themselves that account for a giant 97% of emissions and electricity for 87% of all carbon output. Why I find this most interesting is that it stands to reason that all large retail organizations would fit a profile that would be very similar, thus no matter what other CSR ambitions are stated in this sector success will be especially contingent upon the energy use (including retrofits and new construction) of the shops themselves.

The entire report is a quality read as it explores how the company have reviewed their transport fleet, are making changes to lighting , store heating and coooling plus product refrigeration. Many of these subtle changes might not be apparent as you pick up a prescription but the benefits are deep and do allow for expansion.

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