Eyewear has, thus far, flown below the radar of environmental scrutiny. This is probably because even the biggest manufacturers are small compared to the massive multinational corporations that are usually the target of protests.
Essilor, for example, is the biggest lens company in the world. But even its €3.3 billion in revenue last year is miniscule compared to the $405 billion in sales that Wal-Mart posted, and is much smaller than chemical company Monsanto’s $11 billion in revenue. And most optical companies are a lot smaller than Essilor.
They may not have had much scrutiny yet, but as the public becomes increasingly aware of the environmental cost of their stuff, the optical industry will eventually find itself under the microscope. Glasses are small, but collectively they use a lot of resources. Essilor, for example, used 910 tonnes of CR39 in 2008, and 623 tonnes of polycarbonate pellets. That’s a lot of plastic. They also used 340,000 cubic metres of water (to their credit, that’s significantly less than the year before) and 97.6 gigawatt hours of energy. That’s about the same as the amount of electricity used by all the households in Markham, Ontario.
As eyecare professionals, you can help by asking questions about the products you stock. More importantly, by doing so you’ll be prepared for the customer who asks these questions of you. Sooner or later it’s going to start happening. In the past year, we’ve seen some of the first frames come out claiming to be “green.” So let’s start with the frames. Some are fairly green, some are more of an exercise in “greenwashing,” most aren’t green in the least. What should you ask when someone claims their frame is green?
Wood
We live in Canada. Wood is abundant and, after big environmental battles in the 1980s and 90s, a lot more of it is harvested sustainably. But not all. And in many countries wood is harvested illegally, particularly expensive and rare woods such as teak and mahogany. Before buying a wood frame, insist on seeing proof that it was harvested sustainably and legally.
Spectacle Eyeworks in Vancouver can point you to the area in Quebec where the wood for their maple wood collection came from. Gold & Wood uses only wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. There are a couple certifying bodies in the world of wood, but FSC is the most common.
Poaching is so common, particularly in tropical regions and China, that, if a certificate isn’t produced, you should assume the wood has been harvested illegally and is part of a system of organized crime.
Horn and other natural materials
In the past, we’ve harvested animals to the brink of extinction for ivory, horn, leather and other parts of their bodies that make our trinkets pretty. If you’re going to stock frames with animal components, find out where they came from. Leather or sheepskin is probably safe because we raise the animals for food, though the environmental cost of doing so is high. Rarer materials require more scrutiny.
First, find out if the animal is endangered or threatened anywhere in the world. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has a searchable list. You may need to ask where the animals came from, as some are regionally threatened but abundant elsewhere.
If the company can’t give you clear answers to your questions, that’s a red flag. Gold & Wood, which uses a lot of horn, is one company that could quickly answer that their horn is a by-product of food production.
Recycling
What does it really mean when a company says their product contains recycled material? Maybe a lot, maybe not. How much is from recycled material, all of it or only part? A big part or a small part?
Also, find out how much is recycled from “post-consumer” waste. That’s the stuff that goes in your recycling bin. Anything else is “recycled” from within the manufacturing process. That’s still a good thing, as it means a company is using its own waste material more efficiently. But it’s not at all the same thing as post-consumer. Look for manufacturers who minimize their own waste, but are also finding ways to use a lot of post-consumer waste, which keeps plastic and metal out of landfills.
When Modo launched its Eco frames last year, they got mixed reviews from environmentalists. Modo used metal that was almost entirely post-consumer recycled, but acetate left over from making other frames. At this point, that’s a good step, since frames cut from blocks of acetate leave behind a lot of waste material.
Energy use
This is going to be the hardest question to get an answer to, since so few manufacturers report their energy use. Many can’t because they get their components or frames made by third parties, often in factories that make frames for many companies. But big players with their own factories can and should answer your questions.
Essilor, as noted above, reports on its energy and water use annually, and such disclosure is probably more important for the environment than any of the changes they’ll make, as it allows people to track their progress, make suggestions and demand better performance. It also allows us to celebrate successes.
Water treatment uses a huge amount of energy, so when you’re thinking about things like greenhouse gas emissions, don’t just look at electricity or gas consumption, look at water, too.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. You’ll also need to look at packaging, shipping and finer points of the manufacturing and sourcing process. But every question will lead you to new and interesting discoveries, and will probably do the same for the rep and manufacturer.
At the end of the day, you’ll have helped make this industry a better one for the planet. But you’ll also be able to impress customers when they ask you those tough environmental questions, and you’ll be able to give others a story they’ll be proud to tell their friends when you fit them with a gorgeous and truly green pair of glasses. •