Skip to content
What We Do
Climate Corps Projects

CVS Health – Xuan Du – 2024

SummaryXuan Du provided a roadmap for CVS Health’s sustainability team to collaborate with procurement teams on pharmaceutical supply chain decarbonization.GoalsCVS Health has a SBTi-validated target to reduce absolute Scope 3 emissions from Category 1 – Purchased Goods & Services 47% by 2030. Realizing the importance of supplier engagement in reaching this goal, CVS Health enlisted Xuan Du to research levers to incentivize supplier climate action and ways to improve their Scope 3, Category 1 calculation methodology.SolutionsXuan focused on the pharmaceutical supply chain due to its significant contribution to CVS Health’s Scope 3.1 emissions and approached the challenge using a 5-part process:

– Assessed frameworks to understand levers for incentivizing supply chain decarbonization.

– Conducted external research and interviews with practitioners to understand challenges and best practices associated with their supplier engagement and data refinement, and summarized takeaways by theme.

– Evaluated solutions providers with Product Carbon Footprint capabilities.

– Provided a toolbox of supplier incentivization options, from near-term to future-state.

– Recommended steps to work with internal procurement teams on supply chain decarbonization.Potential ImpactThe Purchased Goods & Services category comprises nearly 90% of CVS Health’s Scope 3 emissions. Engaging key pharmaceutical suppliers on climate action and supporting them on their data maturity journey will allow CVS Health to better measure Scope 3 emissions reductions in line with its science-based target.

At a glance
Industry: Retail and Apparel
Project types:
  • Engagement and Behavior Change
  • Supply Chain
  • Sustainability and Energy Management Strategy
Year: 2024
Location: Woonsocket, RI
About the fellow
Xuan Du
Yale University

Who We Work With

EDF has collaborated with over 40% of Fortune 100 companies to align sustainability goals with bottom line gains