Corporate responsibility

As a company owned by a foundation, sustainability and business success are inextricably linked at ZEISS. Sustainable value added is an integral component of the company's business activity, which focuses on innovative solutions that contribute to positive development in society and enable long-term, profitable growth. The Carl Zeiss Meditec Group is a company of the ZEISS Group and fully shares the objectives of the Foundation. For more information and further details, please visit the ZEISS website about Sustainability and Responsibility.

The Carl Zeiss Meditec Group’s social engagement focuses on charitable initiatives that are directly related to the Company’s core businesses, such as ophthalmology and microsurgery. The Carl Zeiss Meditec Group would like to help provide as many people as possible with access to modern healthcare. Therefore the Company supports projects that aim to enhance the level of medical care for people in underprivileged parts of the world. Support for the training and continuing education of physicians and other medical personnel is a priority:

Orbis Flying Eye Hospital

Orbis Flying Eye Hospital

Sight of 5-year-old cataract patient restored

Five-year-old Buyandeleger loves to sing and dance. She was also born with a cataract in her right eye. Her mother first noticed something was abnormal with her eyes at birth, but routine eye exams were not standard practice for newborns in the rural hospitals in that region of Mongolia. Earlier this year, the dedicated team at ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital planned a visit to Ulaanbaatar, the nearest capital city to where Buyendeleger’s family lives. It was a long journey by bus, but that did not deter young Buyandeleger or her mother who immediately planned the trek when she learned that the ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital was making a stop in their region. The ORBIS clinical team diagnosed Buyandeleger’s condition, used a ZEISS IOLMaster 500 to select the right lens implant (the Flying Eye Hospital’s youngest patient yet to be scanned by the donated ZEISS medical device), removed the cataract, and then implanted an intra-ocular lens in its place. Today, Buyandeleger happily sings and dances with her restored vision, and her mother is grateful that she’ll be able to enjoy her life to the fullest. 

Fiat Lux Foundation

Fiat Lux Foundation

Enabling Life-long Eye Health in Mozambique

To support life-long eye health, the Fiat Lux Foundation built the Boa Visão Eye Hospital in Mocuba, Mozambique, to not only educate and treat adult patients, but also to educate parents about their children’s eye health, providing young and old patients the critical knowledge necessary to help preserve their eyesight. 

Health In Sight Mission of Roatan

Health In Sight Mission of Roatan

Revolutionizing Ophthalmic Care through a Self-Sustaining Clinic

Health In Sight Mission of Roatan has been delivering eye care to the people of Roatan since 2005. The organization is comprised of physicians, clinical staff, and compassionate volunteers who travel to Roatan to perform eye surgery and deliver eye care to patients who would otherwise not have access. An industry leader in ophthalmic devices, ZEISS donated state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment to help the organization provide the best possible care to those who need it most and is working with Health In Sight Mission to revolutionize the way the organization delivers ophthalmic care to the residents on the island.

The majority of the eye care on the Caribbean island involves ZEISS equipment. For cataract surgery, having access to an ZEISS IOLMaster greatly improves accuracy of refractive outcomes and patient throughput, and being able to take IOL measurements prior to mission groups arriving ensures requisition of appropriate IOL powers to bring for surgery. With glaucoma care being a great unmet need in Roatan, ZEISS HFA and ZEISS CIRRUS OCT help detect glaucoma early, treat it, and track results. With diabetes being a prevalent disease on the island, access to an OCT device and fundus photography helps the organization better identify and coordinate retinal care.

In the future, the state-of-the-art ZEISS equipment could play a critical role in supporting the remote training and telemedicine needed to develop a self-sustaining eye clinic that will eventually be run by Honduran doctors and staff to deliver eye care across the island.

Fellowship programs

Fellowship programs

Training as key to good medical treatment

Good medical training forms the basis of good healthcare. The Carl Zeiss Meditec Group has therefore supported scholarship programs for many years that provide young doctors from resource-poor and underprivileged regions the opportunity to spend time in hospitals in Europe. During placements lasting several months, doctors can improve their skills in ophthalmology and later harness the knowledge gained for their work in their native countries. From 2012 to 2020, the Carl Zeiss Meditec Group supported the Fellowship Program of the Foundation of the International Ophthalmology Association (ICO) and financed ten scholarships. In 2020, the International Ophthalmological Fellowship Foundation (IOFF) e. V. launched its Suspectical Fellowship Program initiative, which has been supported by ZEISS ever since. In the past four years, the Company has enabled two IOFF scholarship lasting several months and has also co-funded three one-year scholarships. The Carl Zeiss Meditec Group shall continue to support this program.

In 2022, the Carl Zeiss Meditec Group entered into a partnership with the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies (EANS). As part of this partnership, the Company promotes the education and training of neurosurgical specialists and provides visualization systems and solutions for the EANS training programs and specialist courses. In addition, as a sponsor of the EANS Research Fund, the Company contributes to scientific progress in the field of neurosurgery and has financed two research grants since 2022.  

Equipment donations

Equipment donations

Help for nonprofit organizations

Alongside training and continuing education, the key to delivering good medical care can also be found in supplying technical equipment to hospitals and medical practices. By donating equipment, the Carl Zeiss Meditec Group is going some way towards supporting nonprofits that campaign to improve medical care worldwide. The commitment here extends beyond the donation of medical technology: at the end of fiscal year 2021/22, the Company decided to make a major equipment donation to the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NAS Ukraine). The research projects of NAS Ukraine are supported by microscopes from ZEISS.

2024 – ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital, New York/USA
2024 – Venice Family Clinic, Los Angeles/USA
2023 – Boa Visão Eye Hospital, Mocub/Mozambique
2022 – Philippine General Hospital, Manila/Philippinen
2022 – National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
2019 – Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital Phnom Penh/Kabocha
2018 – YWAM Medical Ships Kona, Kailua-Kona/USA
2018 – Primary Ear Center Nepal, Siraha/Nepal
2018 – humedica e.V. Hilfsprojekt Afghanistan/ Pakistan
2017 – SolidarMED Hilfsprojekt Lugala/Tanzania
2017 – CBM Hilfsprojekt für die Elfenbeinküste
2017 – Eye Hospital, Tororo/Uganda
2017 – Orbis Flying Eye Hospital, New York/USA
2017 – Dhulikhel Hospital, Katmandu/Nepal

Training centers

Training centers

Help for self-help

In line with the motto “help for self-help” ZEISS has been providing medical care to people in underprivileged regions since 2005 through five diagnosis, treatment and training centers for eyecare. At these centers, doctors are trained in the use of modern instruments to diagnose and treat eye diseases using reliable, state-of-the-art technology.

In order to provide economically weak regions with medical care, ZEISS has formed sustainable partnerships with international organizations such as the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) and the Christoffel Mission for the Blind (CBM).

2016 – Shaheed a Fadheel Maz Center (Khartoum, Sudan)
2013 – IAPB Latin American Center of Excellence (Asunción, Paraguay)
2008 – Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College (Moshi, Tanzania)
2006 – University College Hospital (Ibadan, Nigeria)
2005 – Cicendo Eye Hospital (Bandung, Indonesia)

In 2018, ZEISS began funding the establishment of phaco training centers, i.e. dedicated training centers for cataract surgery:

2019 – Phaco training center at the H.V. Desai Eye Hospital (Pune, India)
2018 – Phaco training center at the IAPB Latin American Center of Excellence (Asunción, Paraguay)

During placements lasting several months at hospitals equipped with modern tools, doctors can improve their skills in ophthalmology and later harness the knowledge gained for their work in their home countries.


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