Energy-efficient bases
As part of its sustainability strategy, CooperVision has focused on the footprint of its facilities, including energy conservation and the use of renewable or clean energy sources. Currently, 100% of operations at its New York facility run on renewable wind power, while renewable electricity at one of CooperVision’s UK facilities is generated from biomass.
Talk to TOHeathcliffe Clash, Head of Communications for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: “Energy efficiency is a priority, with upgrades to building management systems, motion lighting and heat protection films at sites around the world”.
The company has received certifications from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and the Mountpark facility (pictured) received the highest score in the Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method – the first sustainability assessment method buildings in the world.
CooperVision’s Mountpark distribution facility, BREEAM Excellent certified
Take a step with compensation
Alcon has partnered with social enterprise Plastic Bank to remove one ton of plastic waste at sea from vulnerable coastal communities for every ton of plastic used in Alcon Precision 1 and Dailies Total 1 contact lenses and packaging.
The partnership will operate in nearly 70 countries across Europe, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand.
Antoine Delgrange, Alcon’s vice president of global eye care marketing, noted that recyclable plastic and cardboard are already used in Alcon’s contact lens packaging, but that the offset program “we will help do even more to improve our plastic impact.”
The company said the compensation initiative represents a step in the company’s commitment and is not the only solution for the eye care industry, adding that it “offers manufacturers an effective way to immediately improve their plastic impact, while looking for long-term solutions”. ”
Make recycling accessible
Johnson & Johnson Vision has expanded its Acuvue contact lens recycling program, with the goal of raising awareness of the program and making contact lens recycling more readily available.
The company has partnered with TerraCycle, making its zero-waste boxes available to all practices. Boxes provide a simple solution for storing, shipping and recycling contact lens waste, from lenses to foil wraps and blister packaging.
Johnson & Johnson Vision will also fund 3,500 zero-waste boxes in 2022, providing recycling capacity of approximately 5.6 million lenses, blister packs and foils.
Zero waste boxes will be distributed to partner practices to ensure national access to the recycling program. The program updates aim to increase the volume of contact lenses entering recycling systems across the UK by up to 25%.
Assess changes
Bausch + Lomb presented a number of elements that make up its program to reduce its environmental impact.
In 2022 in particular, the company is actively identifying its Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions, with Scope 3 to follow. These categories, identified by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, refer to emissions from sources owned or controlled by a company (scopes one and two), and those not produced by a company but for which it is indirectly responsible throughout its lifetime. the supply chain (scope three).
Bausch + Lomb suggested that this process would allow it to determine its carbon footprint by site and by business unit, identify areas of carbon reduction opportunity, and develop investment and project plans to reduce carbon in order to achieve the 2030 and 2050 carbon action targets.
To encourage energy efficiency, the company has required all new construction sites to be LEED (leader in energy efficient design) certified by the US Green Buildings Council, with all of its contact lens manufacturing developments since 2015 certified according to the standard.
The company’s two largest contact lens sites, Rochester in the US and Waterford in Ireland (pictured), are ISO 50001 certified, with a systematic approach to energy management and efficiency.
Bausch + Lomb is also moving toward landfill-free operations, with its Rochester base certified to US standard UL2799, a framework for verifying entities that send little or no waste to landfill, at 94%.
Based in the EU, Bausch + Lomb’s Waterford site has been rated against the elements of UL2799 at 97.92%, although not certified to the US standard.
The company emphasized that zero waste principles are considered “essential to the value and effectiveness of any corporate sustainability effort,” and noted that the International Zero Waste Alliance has established 90% as the threshold. minimum for its zero waste designation.
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