In a time of accelerating change and societal challenges, people are increasingly looking to businesses for innovative ideas and leadership. Maintaining this trust requires that companies keep promises to their customers, partners, and employees while demonstrating how they are making a positive impact in the world.
At The Cigna Group, our mission is to improve the health and vitality of those we serve. As an enterprise with a global workforce of over 70,000 employees, ranked 12 on the Fortune 500, we have both the opportunity and responsibility to bring this mission to life not only for our customers, clients, and communities, but for society as a whole. This culminates in our environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategy, through which we can effect change, uniquely aligned to our mission and our enterprise — championing better health for all. Our ESG framework focuses on four interconnected areas in which we are uniquely equipped to make a positive impact: Healthy environment, healthy society, healthy workforce, and healthy company.
“The Cigna Group’s ESG strategy is deeply connected to the core of who we are as a business and our drive to improve the health care system,” said Nancy Ryan, global ESG lead. “We’ve made meaningful progress over the years and we’re eager to continue our momentum with some exciting advancements in 2023.”
Where we’ve been
ESG is integrated into all we do at The Cigna Group. It isn’t just a box we check, but rather, it’s a continuous effort to reach more people and make a greater impact. Since we launched our formal ESG program in 2013, we’ve accomplished so much together — check out our previous reports. Last year, we were recognized for our strides in the four interconnected areas of our ESG strategy:
- Healthy society: Our health equity work is an integral part of our business, and in order to continue embedding health equity into all we do, we established a monthly touchpoint where any employee, regardless of role, can participate in conversations about health equity and how it may apply to their work. The Cigna Foundation also supports health equity. In 2022, the foundation awarded 152 grants, totaling $16.5 million to nonprofit and community organizations aligned with our mission to improve health and vitality — 90% of the organizations support efforts to address the social determinants of health (SDOH) and improve health equity.
- Healthy workforce: We were ranked #24 on DiversityInc’s Top 50 Companies for Diversity, a nine-place jump forward from 2021, and recognized as one of the Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality in 2022 by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. We also scored 100% on the 2022 Disability Equality Index for the eighth year in a row.
- Healthy environment: We announced we are on track to achieve 100% renewable electricity by 2030. Additionally, for our ESG efforts as a whole, we were named a member of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the sixth consecutive year and ranked in the top 1% for business sustainability by EcoVadis, improving our placement to a Platinum Medal sustainability rating.
- Healthy company: We were named one of America’s Most JUST Companies for the third year by JUST Capital and CNBC, including #1 in the health care industry for safeguarding customer data and privacy. We were also upgraded to AA in the MSCI Ratings, representing industry leadership in ESG. We are also on course to achieve our aspirational goal of $1 billion in diverse supplier spend by 2025, and recently received the Forefront 50 honor by the National Minority Supplier Development Council, which acknowledges companies who are leading the way to create greater economic access and equity for historically underrepresented entrepreneurs.
To learn more about all we accomplished in 2022, keep an eye out for our 2022 ESG Report publishing summer 2023.
Where we’re headed
While we are proud of the work we’ve been able to accomplish thus far, we know there is more we must do to continue advancing better health for all. In 2023, we have big plans in each of our four focus areas — below is just a sampling of the great work our teams are doing this year:
- Healthy society: Advancing a sustainable and equitable health care system is at the core of our vision of a healthy society — and where we believe we can make the biggest impact. We’re continuing to embed health equity into our culture, including through more cultural competency and health equity training for our employees. This year, we’re also continuing our Vitality research, with an increased focus on youth mental health.
- Healthy workforce: Our people are the heart of our company — without them, none of the important work we do would be possible. To support our employees’ vitality, effective January 1, 2023, we expanded our caregiver leave program, doubling from four to eight weeks of paid leave available for employees to bond with a child or care for a family member with a serious health condition. We are also evolving our DEI strategy in 2023 to ensure our people can bring their whole selves to all areas of their lives by focusing on a culture of belonging throughout the company.
- Healthy environment: People’s health and the health of our environment are inextricably linked, which is why environmental sustainability is a core component of our ESG strategy. We are currently conducting an analysis of our Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions and evaluating a timeline to set emission reduction targets that are validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). These steps will help us better understand a broader picture of our environmental impact and give us a frame of reference to create more impactful emission reduction goals.
- Healthy company: We have a deep and long-held commitment to strong governance as well as ethical and resilient business practices — and we hold our suppliers to the same standards. We continue to use EcoVadis, a third-party management tool, to comprehensively assess our suppliers’ ESG business practices. In early 2023, we started incorporating specific language in our supplier contracts that set expectations to complete an EcoVadis assessment, and we will seek to proactively collaborate with them on EcoVadis criteria moving forward.
“As we look to the years ahead, we are grounded by our history and the foundation of ESG we’ve built to guide us in creating greater impact,” said Ryan. “We will continue to ask ourselves what more we can do to create better health for all.”
Related: Today’s companies must pursue profits and purpose
The Cigna Group keenly focuses on profitable growth and purpose. We are committed to serving shareholders and society as a whole.