Is there such a thing as a sustainable material? It’s not a trick question, but as Specsavers discovered, it’s a tricky question to answer.

Apart from the obvious benefits to the planet, making the shift to sustainability makes business sense. According to the World Economic Forum, “embedding sustainability in strategy is essential to meet evolving investor pressure, consumer demand, and regulatory requirements”.

In the context of the eyewear industry, Cathy Rennie Matos, the first Head of Sustainability at Specsavers ANZ said the seemingly basic question of what constitutes a sustainable material became a “fraught process”.

“Perhaps a sustainable material is one made using recycled materials. But what about the infrastructure and energy required to transport ‘waste’ materials to reprocessing facilities and the resulting performance reduction?

“Alternatively, we could use materials made entirely from plants. But what about negative impacts of taking land from nature to grow these?

“The reality is that there’s no such thing as a sustainable material in isolation,” Ms Matos said. “Materials don’t exist in a vacuum separate from the products they are made into, the way products are used, and how they are treated when products reach end of life.

“Equally, we should also consider the social impact on communities in which we operate, those who work in our operations and in our value chain, and the product end users. It’s only by assessing all aspects, across the full product lifecycle, that we can begin to understand and untangle the impacts of materials we use.”

TAKING CONCEPT TO REALITY

In developing the Specsavers’ sustainability roadmap, Ms Matos said the sustainability team works closely with global product teams and key supply chain partners. The team is looking not just at material choices, but design and manufacturing efficiencies, the environmental and social impacts of selected materials, and access to product end-of-life solutions.

Ms Matos said the design and manufacturing efficiencies are key to improving product impact.

“In most products manufactured globally, around half of all carbon emissions occur in upstream supply chain operations. These form part of the complex ‘Scope 3 carbon footprint’. These are emissions that are not totally under our influence or control but are essential to our ability to function.

“By redesigning operations, we can reduce both raw material consumption and the waste generated. Approaches we have found successful in supporting this include smaller starting shapes in machined components, or manufacturing methods that add material instead of taking it away.”

She said Specsavers is also leveraging innovation in plastics, to continue to make products that improve the lives of customers, while consuming less of the finite resources typically required to make frames.

“This may be done by recycling or reusing existing fossil fuel-based plastics, or by swapping some fossil fuel oils to plant-based oils in virgin materials.

“Simply making this switch, however, is not enough. We ensure full visibility of our recycled plastics by sourcing through globally respected third-party certification schemes and seeking out plant-based materials with responsible agriculture and forestry credentials.”

Specsavers recently launched a sustainable sourcing guide with its global product development team, enabling it to make more informed sustainable choices from its approved materials and understand the credentials it will bring a product.

“We now have 28 approved sustainable materials for frame use, up from only two in 2021,” Ms Matos said.

PRODUCT CIRCULARITY

One of the biggest challenges facing the eyewear industry is what to do with spectacle frames that are no longer needed.

“Recycling old frames and lenses into products with meaningful onward lives is an important first step towards circularity across our operations. That’s why we have been working with Opticycle, a local recycling processor, to develop a robust recycling solution for frames and lenses that provides both transparency and traceability for the optical industry in Australia.”

Ms Matos said it’s important to measure the changes made, to accurately quantify progress towards increased sustainability. This is done through a complex data-driven methodology called Life Cycle Assessment.

“As the name suggests, this offers an in-depth assessment of every input and output necessary for a product, from creation to end of life.

“By the end of the year, we aim to have a baseline understanding of the full environmental impact of some of our key products across optics and audiology, alongside a methodology that will allow us to measure the true scale of our progress in the future. This will be a key tool in the achievement of our ambitious carbon reduction targets and will guide sustainable developments across the full product lifecycle,” Ms Matos said.

To read more about how the broader eyewear industry is tackling sustainability, head to page 116.