Sustainability

As a spectacle frame designer and manufacturer with global reach, we realise we have a responsibility to ensure our environmental footprint is as small as possible, and the need to become carbon neutral is more pressing than ever. We want to improve our operations and deliver a positive impact on the world because our products are important - our optical glasses are an everyday necessity for many, and our sunglasses provide important protection against harmful UV rays as well as helping to improve overall eye health.

So, what are we doing?

PEOPLE

Workplaces – We’re changing our electricity supplies to only come from zero carbon renewable sources, specifically solar and wind power.

  • We’ve already achieved carbon neutral certification for our UK head office.
  • We use the latest energy efficient computers with low power consumption.
  • From time to time our computers need to be updated, all old equipment is refurbished and donated to good causes, for example computers needed for home school learning schemes.

Travel – We have made a pledge to only engage in essential travel and, where possible, avoid air travel. When flying is unavoidable, we select ‘green flights’ which have the lowest emissions currently available and only use providers offering carbon offset options.

  • We’re proud to donate to accredited carbon offset schemes where we compensate for our environmental impact by supporting community schemes such as reforestation and other conservation projects.

PRODUCTS

Materials – Cellulose acetate, the main material in our glasses, is derived from plant fibres. Despite its natural credentials, around a 2% petrochemical element is usually added to help achieve the required material characteristics.

  • We are working with industry partners to eliminate this petrochemical element completely so that in the future, our frames will be fully biodegradable.
  • We are currently increasing our biodegradeable products with the aim of establishing a comprehensive offering which will be available to retail customers to purchase in 2022.

Logistics – Thousands of pairs of Ed Scarlett glasses are moved around the world annually. Together with DHL we have become a GoGreen partner, to move all shipments which we control in house, climate neutrally. We endeavour to work with our customers towards finding sustainable ways to transport all of our products from our factory to their final destination countries and offset any emissions through relevant logistics partner schemes.

PRODUCTION

Production Site – Our goal is to reduce carbon emissions to an absolute minimum and offset anything we are unable to reduce or remove altogether.

  • Our production process and technology across all departments is being modernised to be much more energy preserving, whilst our lighting has been updated to energy efficient LED systems.
  • Our water consumption and wastewater management have been updated to be more efficient and considered.
  • We have achieved ISO 9001 certification and are working towards ISO 14001.

Packaging – We are all too aware of the plastic crisis and are working to completely remove single-use plastic transit packaging and replace it with for example cloth bags, which also double as lens cleaning cloths.

PLANNING

We’re ambitious and want to realise our sustainability plans now and in the future. In an effort to continually reduce our environmental impact, we have several long-term goals we want to achieve.

Repurposing – We make high quality products that are built to last. We want to help customers extend the life of their glasses by either encouraging people when relevant to retain their frames and simply change their lenses as their prescription changes, or, be able to re-purpose pre-existing lenses into new frames. To allow this to work efficiently we‘ve managed our production tolerances to surpass industry standards.

Raw Materials – We want to investigate ways we can neutralise carbon emissions throughout our supply chain, including how our raw materials are sourced and transported to us before production starts.

Glasses Lifecycle – When our products reach the end of their life, we want to help educate and incentivise customers to return them to us so we can repurpose their glasses and frames by distributing them to those in need, avoiding waste altogether.