The year is 2020 and environmental concerns are at an all-time high. Despite our global crisis—companies like CVS continue to ignore environmental issues or make any improvements to becoming more sustainable. The retail and health provider continues to hand out 3 foot long receipts to its customers upon checkout.  At times, it is not uncommon to walk away from CVS with a 6 foot long paper receipt. Why do the receipts have to be so long? No other company hands out receipts that length. The company acknowledged in 2013 the concern of their receipts being too long—and insisted they would work to resolve this issue in the years following. The year is 2020 and the issue still exists. It’s time for CVS to become more proactive.

Trees are the main victim to these excessively long receipts. Americans, on average, account for the deaths of nearly 2 billion trees per year. In a world that increasingly relies on technology—is it not a feasible solution to have CVS text or email their receipts to customers instead? By doing this—CVS alone could help save millions of trees from being cut down each year.

Understandably, the CVS Corporation only accounts for a small portion of the overall paper Americans consume each year. Nevertheless—CVS promising to get rid of (or even slightly reducing the size) of their excessively large receipts would  undoubtedly have a positive impact on the environment. It would be a step in the right direction if CVS went paperless. CVS could act as advocates to go paperless in the retail industry and encourage other companies to follow in their footsteps.  

Our society cuts down trees at an alarming pace—without realizing all the good trees do for human existence. Trees provide fresh oxygen to humanity and improve the overall air quality in our environments. Not to mention the millions of trees around the world that are used by animals as habitats to survive. We can no longer afford to overlook this issue. Recent studies show that nearly 80 species of trees have gone extinct in the last 100 years—and that number will continue to rise if corporations like  CVS do not reduce their consumption of paper.  

We respect and value all the good CVS does for our society and understand the transition to going paperless is not a quick fix—but we can no longer turn a blind eye to all the trees that are being destroyed at the expense of your excessively long receipts. We would like CVS to join our mission in creating a sustainable future and make the adjustments necessary to reduce the unnecessary length of their paper receipts.