Sustainability
with ZEISS Vision Care
Responsible action has always been linked to our long-term success. As a company of the Carl Zeiss Foundation, we have been living these values for over 100 years. We work with our teams, worldwide, to preserve resources while providing eye care solutions to help people see better.
To fulfill our responsibility, we focus on three major areas:
Roadmap
As part of our sustainability strategy, we aim to achieve carbon neutrality in our own operations by 2025. In combination with the goal of switching to green power at our main sites worldwide by 2022, we are contributing to the Paris Agreement of limiting global warming below 2°C.
2022
green power supply in our main sites worldwide
2025
CO2 neutrality on all our own global activities
Resource savings
We ensure that less water, energy and plastic goes into the production of our eyeglasses and that less CO2 is emitted across the entire value chain – from the manufacture of semi-finished lenses all the way to final delivery.
Within over 250 individual initiatives we strive to better fulfill our responsibility each and every day. We are working hard to achieve sustainable business practices across the entire process.
Some of our over 250 initiatives

Italy

100% Renewable Energy in Varese1
With a mixture of hydro- and biomass power, the site has been meeting its energy needs through 100 percent renewable sources. The amount of the booked renewable electricity would satisfy the electricity needs of about 1.500 Italian families and contribute to avoid more 1.500 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
Mexico

Reuse of Wastewater in Tijuana2
To counteract water scarcity in specific production regions, the eyeglass lenses plant reuses wastewater from operations processes for uses with lower water quality requirements. This results in an annual avoided water consumption of about 100 m3, the equivalent necessary for satisfying the yearly water drinking needs of 100 people.
India

Rainwater Recycling in Bangalore3
The Bangalore factory collects rainwater on a surface of 1.200 m2 on the factory roof and uses it for lenses production. This way, the avoided consumption of the municipal drinking water, about 690.000 liters a year, is available for the citizens in an area facing water shortage during the drought season.
China

Recycling Heat in Production Processes in Guangzhou4
Renewal of a compressed air system always leads to higher energy efficiencies, but in this case has also triggered the idea in our engineers in Guangzhou to recover the exhaust air generated by reusing it in the warming of our tinting baths: about 90 MWh consumption less, the equivalent of a domestic energy consumption of 30 Chinese families.
USA

Turn waste into raw material in Hebron7
The plant in Hebron has partnered up with a local business from the automotive industry. The partnership allows reusing the spent alcohol from the lenses production process as a raw material for the manufacturing of new alcohol-based products. Every year about 150 kg of potentially harmful volatile organic compounds can be therefore recycled.
Australia

Water savings through new manufacturing process in Tonsley8
With an investment of more than $1 million, production in Tonsley is being converted from wet-edging of lenses to dry-edging with CNC-controlled machines. In this way, no wastewater is produced during the production process.
Sustainable product development
In order to make lens production as sustainable as possible, we continuously scrutinize and improve our production processes. We are developing methods that allow us to manufacture lenses with ever decreasing material input and replace outdated production equipment with energy-efficient devices.
We want to move away from the tradition of automation for its own sake, towards a relentless pursuit of optimal parameters that can result in the lowest energy consumption and the lowest volume of waste production.
Not only the volume of materials used is crucial for sustainable development, but also the raw materials themselves. Using a significant number of bio-based materials, we have developed more eco-friendly manufactured sunglasses lenses, offering customers a sustainable choice.
Social engagement
As a company owned by a foundation, we are committed to social responsibility. Therefore, acting responsibly is one of our corporate values. Our mission: Clear vision for everybody.
For this purpose, we support various local initiatives that are dedicated to this topic. Many people don’t have access to any form of eye care, especially in rural areas. The main reason is that most developing or poor regions lack the professional and logistical capacity to deliver vision correction.