WOMEN IN THE NEWS

A Stepping Stone

Sam’s Club pharmacy manager Melanie Loftus opened a charitable pharmacy last year to help those in need By Hannah Esper

Sometimes, life’s agenda goes differently than you expect. Melanie Loftus knew she wanted to open a charitable pharmacy someday — perhaps in retirement. She didn’t anticipate how short that road would actually be.

In 2018, Loftus signed up to become a volunteer at the Hope Clinic of Ross County, a free faith-based clinic that provides medical and dental services to uninsured patients. At the time, she was living nearby, in Chillicothe, Ohio, working as a pharmacy manager at Sam’s Club.

During the onboarding process for Hope Clinic, Loftus mentioned that she’d always wanted to open a charitable pharmacy. “I did a rotation at one in pharmacy school and just fell in love with it,” she said. “This is what I want to do. It’ll probably be a long time from now,” she told them.

The clinic, which was completely run by volunteers, didn’t quite have a pharmacy at the time. “The doctors would just come after seeing the patients and be like, ‘Do you have this?’ Then we’d have to give it to the doctor, and then the doctor had to give it to the patient.” They needed something better, so Loftus was put in touch with a doctor at the clinic who she was told was interested in opening a charitable pharmacy but needed a pharmacist to make it happen. Loftus was that person.

After checking with her employer, Loftus returned to college to obtain a business degree. She used the skills she learned in school, which Walmart funded, to create a business plan for the new pharmacy. “The grant writing stuff was so intimidating to me,” she said. “But that really gave me the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone because I could work on the stuff that I would need in real life for school.”

Loftus presented her plan to the board at Hope Clinic and received a unanimous vote to open the pharmacy. The next step would be to receive grants to make the dream a reality. “Because everything is volunteer-based and all grants and donations, I was thinking it would be many, many years before this was a real thing,” she said. “We got the funding in six months or something. It was insane.”

Just a year and a half after the idea for the pharmacy was formed, the Hope Pharmacy at the Hope Clinic opened in November 2021. They filled 37 prescriptions on its first night. Not too long ago, they filled 126. The pharmacy serves those making less than 300% of the federal poverty line or those who are uninsured or underinsured. Currently, the pharmacy is only open on Monday evenings.

Loftus said the Hope Pharmacy helps a lot of people who are in between jobs or who’ve recently lost their insurance coverage, similar to the charitable pharmacy where she did a rotation during pharmacy school. People would use the program for two or three months, until they had another job and new insurance, she said. “It was really a stepping stone, just getting them back up to where they were good again.”

Loftus, who has a 4-year-old son, said the road to opening the pharmacy was time-consuming but added that she’s getting better at time management. Overall, the experience has been rewarding.

“We’re only open one day a week, but people can call and leave messages,” she said. “Sometimes the messages aren’t like, ‘Hey, I need this refilled,’ or ‘Do you have this drug?’ They’re like, ‘I just wanted to call and tell you guys how helpful this has been.’ Just the stories that people tell you. It’s just amazing to be able to be there for people in that time of need, even if it’s just for a short time.” dsn

“It’s just amazing to be able to be there for people in that time of need, even if it’s just for a short time.”

— Melanie Loftus

COMMUNITY IMPACT

RETAILERS RAMP UP INITIATIVES TO DRIVE EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND SUSTAINABILITY

BY MARK HAMSTRA

Drug store retailers have long had

strong programs built around service to the community, from support for local charities to educational programs, health screenings and other initiatives.

Increasingly, those efforts have focused on diversity, equity and access to healthcare resources as retailers seek to play a role in improving health outcomes in disadvantaged communities. Sustainability also has become more and more important, as many consumers — especially millennials and Gen Zers — now expect companies to take aggressive steps to minimize their impact on the environment.

Battling on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic affected the approach that retailers have taken toward their community-focused initiatives. The pandemic forced retailers to rethink how they protected the health and safety of their workers while, at the same time, ensuring that they were providing

Walgreens Eyes Success of Boots’ Recycling Eff rt

the services that their communities needed, from testing and providing information to administering vaccines and boosters.

The pandemic brought to light some of the inequities in the healthcare system, said Lauren Stone, director of corporate social responsibility at Walgreens. “COVID amplified how systemic racism has led to health disparities in communities of color,” she said. “It’s not that people weren’t aware of that before, but COVID just made it so apparent. As a pharmacy retailer that’s in communities across the U.S., we saw what an incredible role we had to play.”

For example, Walgreens deployed a vaccine equity task force, which helped the company stage more than 1,200 vaccine events in medically underserved communities and locations, she said.

Similarly, Rite Aid identified the need to support underserved communities during the pandemic, said Jessica Kazmaier, chief human resources officer at the Camp Hill, Pa.-based chain. “We really rallied around the idea that this is why we’re here, and this is what we’re meant to do,” said Kazmaier, who also serves on the board of Rite Aid Healthy Futures. “We delivered over the course of the last couple of years 17 million COVID vaccines, a lot of those to communities that did not have easy access.”

Walgreens is keeping an eye on a container recycling program that performed well at its Boots banner in the United Kingdom.

After a 50-store test that began in 2020, Boots last year rolled out the Recycle at Boots program to an additional 650 stores, allowing customers to return hard-torecycle HBC items, such as toothpaste tubes and mascara containers. Customers are rewarded with 250 Boots Advantage Card Points for every five containers returned.

During the trial period, consumers dropped off more than 500,000 used HBC containers, the company said. “The reaction from our customers has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Lucy Reynolds, director of communications and CSR at Boots UK, in a post on the company’s website.

Boots sends the used containers to its recycling partner, MYGroup, which sorts them, shreds them and forms them into plastic boards, which are then used to create new items, such as chairs and reusable storage containers, some of which are now being used at Boots warehouses.

Lauren Stone, director of corporate social responsibility at Walgreens, said the pharmacy retail chain’s U.S. division is watching the results from its sister banner carefully, although she said it’s not yet clear if a similar program could work in the United States.

“We’re definitely taking learnings from the work they’re doing over at Boots,” she said. “It’s something we would love to do if we can operationalize it here in the U.S.” Walgreens Focuses on Access, Equity

Walgreens’ environmental, social and governance, or ESG, initiatives revolve around four pillars, which the company describes as Healthy Communities, Healthy Planet, Healthy and Inclusive Workplace, and Sustainable Marketplace. In recent years, Walgreens has refined its focus on supporting local

communities, especially those that have been disadvantaged, Stone said. “We really have honed in on this idea of addressing access and equity around healthcare goods and services,” she said.

Walgreen’s sharpened focus on equity and inclusion is helping shape many of its initiatives, Stone said. For example, the company has a goal of providing 100 million immunizations through its “Get a Shot. Give a Shot” initiative by 2024. That program, a partnership with the United Nations Foundation’s Shot@Life campaign, is focused on getting vaccinations to people in developing countries who wouldn’t have access to them otherwise, with a focus on childhood vaccines.

Similarly, Walgreens’ partnership with the Vitamin Angels program provides vitamins and minerals to millions of expectant mothers and children both in the United States and abroad. The program seeks to address gaps in access to prenatal and postnatal nutrition.

The company is constantly looking at those and other charitable activities to maximize its impact in the local communities where it operates, Stone said. “We’ve seen a ton of progress in that space,” she said.

Diversity, equity and inclusion are of course closely intertwined with these efforts, and have been an area where Walgreens has shown strong progress, Stone said. The company has tied compensation to DEI initiatives, for example, in order to increase the representation of women and people of color in leadership roles.

Supplier diversity in particular has been a success, she said, citing purchases from diverseowned suppliers that have exceeded the company’s goals. Walgreens has committed to increasing sourcing from suppliers that are at least 51% owned, operated and managed by individuals who are disadvantaged, disabled, military veterans, LGBTQ+, minorities and/ or women. In fiscal year 2022, Walgreens has set a target to increase supplier diversity spending to $625 million, up from its 2021 spending of $521.5 million.

“Previously, we didn’t even have a goal around supplier diversity,” Stone said. “We’re seeing a lot of excitement and a lot of engagement in the supplier diversity space, and in the DEI space as a whole.”

She said Walgreens has committed to being transparent around its diversity efforts, pledging to report both its successes and its shortcomings.

With all of its ESG efforts, driving employee engagement is one of the most important keys to success, Stone said. The most successful initiatives tend to be those that have buy-in from workers, she said. “I think that’s what we all want,” Stone said. “We all want to work for a company that we feel shares our values.”

Rite Aid Focuses on Community, Diversity

Similarly, Rite Aid also has refined its efforts around support for the community in the wake of the pandemic, Kazmaier said.

Its four ESG pillars include Thriving Planet, Thriving Business, Thriving Workplace and Thriving Community. It meshes the broad sets of goals in those areas with its RxEvolution strategy, unveiled in 2020, that seeks to remake the company as a “whole health” destination for the communities where it operates.

Rite Aid also has revamped its diversity, equity and inclusion road map, Kazmaier said. Overall, the company has become more intentional and focused

We all want to work for a company that we feel shares our values.

— LAUREN STONE, DIRECTOR OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, WALGREENS on its community efforts.

For example, in its 2021 ESG report, Rite Aid said it had improved access to COVID19 vaccines in neighborhoods across the country, partnering with such organizations as the Newark Equitable Vaccine Initiative, the NAACP and the Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO to set up clinics for vulnerable or underserved populations.

While the company had previously focused broadly on children’s charities, it has since refocused Rite Aid Healthy Futures — the nonprofit it established in 2001 — “around the intersection of racial injustice and health disparities,” Kazmaier explained.

Despite coping with the challenges of COVID-19, Rite Aid has doubled down on its diversity and inclusion initiatives under the leadership of CEO Heyward Donigan. In December 2020, the company named its first vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion, Texanna Reeves, who has helped the retailer create a three-year road map for its DEI program, Kazmaier said.

She also touted the diversity of Rite Aid’s board, which includes 50% representation from women, including two female board chairs. In addition, 88% of board members are gender or ethnically diverse. “We did that with great intentionality,” Kazmaier said. “We’ve seen the benefits of that. It’s helped our board to thrive, and we see that as the road map of what can be done.”

Rite Aid has been highly focused on attracting diverse leadership, Kazmaier said,

and has been working with consulting firms, including McKinsey & Co., to help it achieve those goals. In fact, it currently has several leaders in McKinsey’s leadership development program for executives to prepare them for C-level management opportunities.

The fact that the company has embraced a remote-work environment, which had been in the works before the pandemic began, has created a deeper talent pool, Kazmaier said. It has allowed the company to expand its search throughout the entire country for leaders, including more diverse candidates, she said.

“We’ve got a lot of great, talented people from central Pennsylvania, which is where our old headquarters was, but we didn’t need to limit ourselves to people who were either from there or who were willing to move there,” Kazmaier explained. “That strategy has worked for us.”

In addition, Rite Aid has more than 30 employees who are in a management accelerator program, specifically designed to develop racially diverse leaders.

The company also has formed a new talent network, which Kazmaier described as a modern version of an employee resource group, or ERG.

“It is about promoting professional development, but we actually tap it to help inform us on business decisions, on community activities and opportunities,” Kazmaier said. “So the people who are in that talent network are really helping to inform our company direction.”

Another key initiative at Rite Aid involves its expansion of new stores into underserved communities. It is currently testing a small-format model that would focus on prescriptions and health care, without much of the typical front-end merchandise. “It really is pharmacy-focused to give these communities access to a healthcare professional that they need,” Kazmaier said.

She said the company sees the test as an opportunity to learn more about the people in those communities and how Rite Aid can better meet their unique needs.

CVS Addresses Health Disparities

Like Walgreens and Rite Aid, Woonsocket, R.I.-based CVS Health also has a comprehensive ESG strategy that rests on four pillars: Healthy People, Healthy Business, Healthy Community and Healthy Planet.

CVS Health recently expanded its free, community-based health screening services to two new markets — Las Vegas and Richmond, Va.

The disparities that we’ve seen with COVID-19 weren’t a surprise, but they’ve certainly alarmed all of us, and there are specific actions we can take to be able to address it.

— JONEIGH KHALDUN, VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF HEALTH EQUITY OFFICER, CVS HEALTH

Also, like its rival retail drug chains, CVS is focusing many of its ESG efforts around goals that expand access to affordable care and address racial inequities, along with taking steps to minimize its impact on the environment. The company said it has a goal to commit more than $1.5 billion to social impact investments to build healthier communities, as a part of its broad set of Healthy 2030 ESG goals.

Payless Drugs Taps into Solar P wer

Payless Drugs, a four-store independent retailer based in Birmingham, Ala., is seeking to minimize its environmental footprint and drive cost savings at the same time through the use of solar power.

Last year the company installed solar panels on the roof of a store in Fairfield, Ala., which has helped cut its monthly energy bill almost in half at that location, said Boyd Ennis Jr., owner of Payless Drugs. “We’ve always been interested in solar power,” he said. “As an independent, one of the ways you increase your profits is to reduce your expenses and your power consumption. “This is a benefit to the environment, but it’s also a benefit to the store.”

Power consumption had been especially high at the Fairfield store, Ennis said, which made it a strong candidate for the solar test. Payless also wanted to take advantage of tax credits that were available for solar installations. “Fortunately we were blessed to have a few extra coins in the coffer to be able to do it. We’ve been happy with it. It’s actually been quite exciting.”

The panels don’t provide all the power needed for the store, he said, although they do provide significant savings. One recent monthly electricity bill showed that the store had to buy 2,495 kilowatt hours of power from the grid, compared with about 4,600 a year ago. The most recent bill totaled $477, compared with just over $800 a year ago.

The cost of installation, including a meter that he added about a month afterward, was about $34,000, he said.

One of the challenges he faces is that his cost per kilowatt/ hour for electricity usage actually went up after installing the solar panels because of the way the grid is structured in Alabama. The store is still generating savings, however, and the solar panels have so far provided a higher share of the store’s energy needs than Ennis had originally expected.

Payless is looking to add solar panels on a second store in Morris, Ala., after replacing the roof at that location. It doesn’t pay to install solar panels on a roof that will need to be replaced within a few years, he said.

That second location could potentially reduce its power consumption even more if it can save enough solar power during the day to power essential equipment, such as refrigerators and freezers, overnight, he said. All of his stores have backup generators to provide power to those essential appliances in the event of power outage, Ennis said.

Payless also takes other steps to reduce energy consumption, including using smart thermostats to help regulate store temperature and other technology that limits power consumption when certain electronic devices are not in use.

“We are not a net-zero store by any stretch of the imagination,” he said. “We don’t have enough roof space to do that, but we’re doing our part.”

The company unveiled its new Health Zones initiative earlier this year, in which it is testing a program in five cities, partnering with local organizations to address a range of factors that the company said contribute to health disparities. These factors include housing, access to food, transportation, education, labor and workforce training, and healthcare access.

For example, CVS is partnering with Uber Health to find transportation to medical appointments for patients with the greatest need.

“This has been a real wonderful opportunity to really bring an integrated approach to underserved communities,” said Eileen Howard Boone, senior vice president of corporate social responsibility and philanthropy and chief sustainability officer at CVS Health, in a video announcing the program.

The Health Zone initiative launched in Atlanta; Fresno, Calif.; Columbus, Ohio; Hartford, Conn., and Phoenix. The company said it would monitor the results from those markets before deciding whether to expand the program to additional locations.

Joneigh Khaldun, vice president and chief health equity officer at CVS Health, said the pandemic, in which minorities were disproportionately impacted, was a wake-up call about the severity of the health disparities that exist in the country. “The disparities that we’ve seen with COVID-19 weren’t a surprise, but they’ve certainly alarmed all of us, and there are specific actions we can take to be able to address it,” she said.

Albertsons Unveils New ESG Framework

Supermarket operators also have long been at the forefront when it comes to community support. While their initiatives often revolve around hunger relief and food insecurity, they have increasingly expanded their efforts in other areas, including diversity and sustainability.

This past April, Albertsons unveiled a new ESG framework, called Recipe for Change. The framework lays out new long-term strategies and goals focused on substantially reducing carbon emissions, eliminating food waste going to landfills, reducing the use of plastic, accelerating the transition to a more circular economy, reducing food insecurity and cultivating a diverse and inclusive workforce.

“As a long-standing neighborhood grocer, it’s important to us that we use our national presence and resources to drive meaningful change for our communities and our planet,” said Suzanne Long, chief sustainability and transformation officer at Albertsons.

Albertsons has been making what Long described as “substantial progress” across all four pillars of its Recipe for Change framework: planet, people, product and community. For example, the company implemented 850-plus energy efficiency projects in 2021, such as LED lighting and doors on refrigerated cases, that are helping the company achieve its goals around carbon reduction. The company is also continuing to expand its use of renewable energy, such as on-site solar capabilities.

Albertsons’ entire private truck fleet is certified by the Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay program, and in 2021, the company completed the nation’s first commercial 100% zero-emission refrigerated grocery delivery with a class 8 truck, which delivered groceries to a Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED)-certified Albertsons store in Irvine, Calif.

At the same time, Albertsons is also working to reduce food waste, an effort that includes an artificial intelligence-powered platform to better manage inventory and fresh product supply. “This helps reduce the amount of food going to landfill and also ensures our customers have access to fresher products,” Long said.

Albertsons has also formed innovative partnerships to help the company repurpose food waste as animal feed, or to send the surplus to a biodigester that creates biogas and soil nutrients for organic farming.

“We have also been making significant progress toward our commitment to reduce food insecurity,” Long said, noting that in 2021, the company, along with the Albertsons Cos. Foundation, contributed nearly $200 million in food and financial support, including approximately $40 million through its Nourishing Neighbors Program to ensure those living in its communities have enough to eat.

The keys to Albertsons’ success with its ESG efforts, she said, have been setting clear goals, having strong executive support and engagement, and embedding its ESG efforts directly into its operations. For example, the entire leadership was involved in setting Albertsons’ company-wide goal to reduce its carbon footprint by 47% by 2030, Long said. dsn

Albertsons’ entire private truck fleet is certified by the Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay program, and in 2021, the retailer completed the nation’s first commercial 100% zero-emission refrigerated grocery delivery.