About Us

Ronald A. Williams (Aetna Chairman and CEO): Everything we do at Aetna starts with our values. These are a clear, strongly-held set of beliefs that guide how we interact with the people who use our services. They start every conversation; inspire innovation in our products and services; and drive our commitment to excellence in all we do.

They also lead us naturally to Sustainability. We recognize that, as a company, we can make choices that are good for our business and our planet.

At Aetna, we think about this in four principle ways:

• Helping individuals get and stay healthy
• Helping our communities grow and thrive
• Helping to build a better health care system, and
• Helping our environment sustain itself

Environment

Vanessa Harwood (Aetna Teleworker): Sustainability means being sensitive to the impact that our actions have on the environment, locally and globally. We’re reducing our carbon footprint through a wide spectrum of recycling and energy-reduction initiatives that include installing solar panels and engaging in sustainable building practices.

We’re very proud that these efforts have resulted in LEED silver certification for our new Customer Center. But our most impressive results may spring from steps we’ve taken to encourage employee use of mass transportation and telework. By reducing the number of cars on the road, we estimate that we are eliminating 23,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

Wellness

Lalani Perry (Aetna Wellness Programs): At Aetna, we’re dedicated to helping create and sustain a healthier America through our many wellness programs. For example, a 16-week wellness program that we began two years ago engaged nearly 20,000 of our employees in their own health. They completed almost one million hours of exercise while adopting healthier eating habits. As a result, we were able to help them significantly reduce risk factors such as high cholesterol, smoking, hypertension and excess body weight. We’ve had such great success that we are developing new ways of taking what we have learned to our customers.

Community

Matt Wiggin (Aetna Volunteer):Sustainability is also a matter of making a difference in communities across the country. Since 2003, Aetna employees have logged more than 1.6 million hours of community service. In addition, Aetna Foundation funding makes possible a broad array of community programs tackling complex issues like childhood obesity and poor health literacy.

To help ensure more communities benefit from quality health care services, we have directed nearly $25 million since 2001 toward efforts to address racial and ethnic disparities in health care. As a result, we’re able to create more culturally focused disease management and wellness programs to improve the health of diverse communities.

Health Care Reform

Thulani LeGrier (Aetna Citizen Action Network): Finally, sustainability at its core means sharing our expertise in health care to the benefit of others. We recognize that great nations don’t have 45 million citizens without access to health care. For that reason, we’ve been proactive in the national discussion about how to increase access to affordable health care. We will continue to be a leader in developing solutions and in urging meaningful reforms in the halls of Congress and in state legislatures across the country.

Williams: No single group can solve the world’s problems, but public companies can move the collective needle by using their human and financial resources to innovate in ways that benefit both private interests and the public good. That’s what we do at Aetna every day.