Walgreens Boot Alliance (WBA) has announced cuts in its carbon emissions, energy use, and waste sent to landfill in 2018, as the pharmaceuticals retailer reported a host of sustainability achievements in its latest CSR report yesterday.

The global firm, which includes UK retailer Boots, slashed its carbon footprint by 9.6 per cent over the year up to the end of August 2018, meaning it has now cut its CO2 by a total of 15.3 per cent over the past two years.

WBA businesses generated close to 17,000MWh of electricity through solar panels in the 2018 fiscal year, mostly from solar installations on 240 stores and distribution centres in the US, the report added. In the UK and Norway, meanwhile, WBA said its businesses have contracts to purchase 100 per cent renewable electricity.

Energy use across the firm's global operations has also now fallen four per cent since the 2016 fiscal year, spurred on by progress across Walgreens stores in the US and the rollout of more efficient lighting at Boots UK stores.

Walgreens, WBA's largest business, committed to reducing its energy use by 20 per cent between 2011 to 2020 across its stores, which cover 100 million square feet of retail estate in the US. As of August 2017, the most recently available data period, Walgreens had achieved a 13 per cent cut, the report confirmed.

Boots UK and Ireland, meanwhile, has also now installed sustainable beauty displays in more than 2,200 stores, which feature lighting that is 40 per cent more energy efficient. The update follows the UK retail chain's announcement last year that it has reached its 2020 emissions target three years early, largely thanks to the installation of energy efficient LED lighting.

Since then Boots UK has also joined the UK Plastics Pact, joining with a raft of major businesses in a bid to drive down single use plastic waste.

And, in the US and Puerto Rico, Walgreens distribution facilities diverted 93 per cent of waste from landfill over the year, up from the 88 per cent mark achieved the previous year, the report reveals.

In addition, WBA said it has now established a new chemicals management programme aimed at assessing and restricting the use of certain harmful chemicals and ingredients in the products it sells, in order to boost transparency for consumers.

Ornella Barra, WBA co-chief operating officer and chairman of the firm's CSR committee, said the company had a "tremendous opportunity to change the world for better".

"Through our health-centered initiatives we have had a positive impact on millions of people in the communities we serve and in underserved areas across the planet," she said. "We believe that we can drive business results while benefitting society and that is why we have embedded CSR in everything we do."