Rite Aid Highlights ESG Progress in Latest Report

Drug store retailer Rite Aid has shared progress on its environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts in its fifth-annual report.

The retailer detailed new initiatives in its four pillars of ESG (Thriving Planet, Thriving Business, Thriving Workplace and Thriving Community). This latest report also shows alignment between Rite Aid’s efforts and eight of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are designed as a framework to facilitate significant global development by 2030.

“Rite Aid is a neighborhood pharmacy, and we believe our ESG commitments enable us to be a more responsible member of the communities we serve,” said Amanda Patrick, director of ESG and Corporate Sustainability at Rite Aid. “We recognize the importance of acting as a purpose-led organization and hope to lead by example with programs that invest in our employees, push forward on DEI efforts, offer a product assortment with cleaner ingredients, minimize our impact on the planet and address health equity for more successful health outcomes.”

Highlights from Rite Aid’s 2022 ESG report include the following:

Thriving Planet:

•  Increasing the amount of renewable energy purchased, even reaching 100% renewable energy in select stores in Northern California.
• Diverting more than 38,000 tons of recyclable materials from landfills over the last year.
• Working toward energy-saving goals, with LED lights now installed in 49% of Rite Aid stores – up nearly 17% from last year.

Thriving Business 

• Continuing to integrate sustainability into the procurement process, collecting data on topics such as supplier diversity, product packaging and chemical management.
• Expanding collaboration with own-brand suppliers to further advance efforts to reduce and eliminate harmful chemicals in product offerings.
• Leveraging a consumer-led product attribute program that supports Rite Aid’s strategy around whole health and cleaner-ingredient products by identifying and communicating relevant product attributes (i.e., paraben-free, cruelty-free) in an effort to aid shoppers in their purchase decisions.

Thriving Workplace

• Providing improved benefits to associates, such as accelerating benefit eligibility for newly hired associates, adding fertility and adoption benefits and introducing a virtual physical therapy program.
• Offering professional development tools to assist associates in maintaining and building their skills, which saw a 12% increase in usage last year.
• Implementing leadership development programs aimed at advancing diverse talent into more senior-level and management positions.

Thriving Community 

• Performing 724 health clinics across the clinical services team, specifically focused in underserved areas located within a high social vulnerability index, demonstrating a focus on patient outcomes and access to care.
• Opening several small-format stores to improve access to care in pharmacy deserts in rural areas.
• Increasing pharmacist participation in Medication Therapy Management (MTM) programs, which resolve drug therapy problems, close gaps in care, address medication adherence barriers, and more; efforts resulted in Rite Aid pharmacists completing approximately 384,000 MTM services in 2022 to support the health and wellness of over 220,000 patients.

Rite Aid operates more than 2,300 retail pharmacy locations across 17 states.