Based on a mixture of hydro and biomass power, the site has been meeting its energy needs with 100 per cent renewable sources. The amount of renewable electricity booked would satisfy the electricity needs of about 1,500 Italian families and contribute to avoiding more than 1,500 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

To counteract water scarcity in specific production regions, the eyeglass lens plant reuses wastewater from operations processes for uses with lower water quality requirements. This results in an avoided water consumption of approximately 100 m³ annually, the equivalent necessary to satisfy the yearly water drinking needs of 100 people.

The Bangalore factory collects rainwater on a surface of 1,200 m² on the factory roof and uses it for lens production. This makes the avoided consumption of the municipal drinking water – about 690,000 liters a year – available to citizens in an area facing water shortages during the drought season.

Upgrading a compressed air system always leads to higher energy efficiencies, but in this case it also inspired our engineers in Guangzhou to recover the generated exhaust air by reusing it in the warming of our tinting baths: the result is a reduction in consumption of approx. 90 MWh, equivalent to the domestic energy consumption of 30 Chinese families.

The production site in Guangzhou uses almost 100 percent solar energy instead of fossil fuels for the production of ophthalmic lenses.

The plant at the Petrópolis site uses renewable hydropower electricity, making it possible to avoid approx. 550 t CO₂ per year, an amount similar to the CO₂absorbed by a forest of 400 trees.

The plant in Hebron has teamed up with a local business in the automotive industry. This partnership makes it possible to reuse the spent alcohol from the lens production process as a raw material for the manufacture of new alcohol-based products. Thanks to this approach, around 150 kg of potentially harmful volatile organic compounds can be recycled every year.

An investment of more than $1 million is converting production in Tonsley from wet-edging of lenses to dry-edging with CNC-controlled machines. Thanks to this conversion, no wastewater is produced during the production process.