Trending In Eye Care: Sustainability

A key trend in eye care is the increasing awareness of sustainability. In a typically stagnant and unrevolutionary industry, there is a rise in sustainable offerings — from eyewear to eye exams to the services that fuel a practice. How does this impact the industry? As the forefront to the market, practice owners must consider several things pertaining to sustainability: consumer demand, sustainable product assortment, and how both tie into the mission of your business.

Sustainability Importance

The United Nations defines sustainability as, “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (United Nations, 2025). Practicing sustainably and selling sustainable products contribute to the protection of ecosystems from reduced energy use, pollution reduction, and the overall reduction of your carbon footprint. Sustainability starts way before the consumer is ready to purchase — it starts with those creating and selling the products.

Consumer Demand

A study found that 78% of U.S. consumers said that a sustainable lifestyle is important to them, and more than 60% of respondents said they’d pay more for a product with sustainable packaging.

Relating to assortment, products that make environmental-, social-, and governance-related (ESG) claims averaged higher cumulative growth throughout the past five-year period, over products that made no such claims (Feber et al., 2020). By offering sustainable products, optometry practices can enhance their brand image and business reputation, attract the increasing number of environmentally conscious customers, enhance lifestyles, and improve their community.

Incorporating Sustainability

We’ve all heard “Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle”, here’s how practices can incorporate sustainability:

Reduce

• Electronic Health Records (EHR) — Using EHRs saves an enormous amount of paper. Further reduction of paper use and streamlining operations can be achieved by incorporating digital signature pads and utilizing laminated forms that can be scanned into records and re-used.
• 3D-Printed Eyewear — Because 3D-printed frames are made-to-order to the exact bespoke specifications, there are no remnants of material that go to waste. 3D-printed eyewear also has the benefit of significantly reducing the supply chain time frame.

Reuse
Frame companies are jumping on-board with reusing materials for eyewear. Repurposing something that already exists is a great way to reduce landfill waste. Some of my favorite examples of repurpose materials for ophthalmic frames include vinyl records, wood, skateboards, denim, and re-dying acetate remnants to reuse toward a new frame.

Recycle

• Contact Lens Packaging — The small blister packs and foil lid materials from contact lens packaging get filtered out of regular municipal recycling, which then becomes waste. With the increased usage of daily contact lenses, two blister packs, two foil lids, and two lenses per day can really add up. Practices can enlist their patients to collect their daily waste and bring into the clinic. The practice can then send all patients materials to a contact-lens-specific facility that recycles the materials to make new products.
• Used, Unwanted Eyewear — Many communities have charitable organizations that go on missions and donate eyewear to those in need. Lions Club International has chapters nationwide that provides collection boxes for practices and arranges pickups. Offering this service is also a great way to get customers to revisit the practice outside of their regular annual visit cadence.

Sell Sustainably Sourced Eyewear
A favorite brand of mine offers several sustainable material options, including a plant-based resin collection made from sustainably grown castor beans. Frames are made from all kinds of sustainably sourced material, some include wood, cotton-based acetate, plant-based resin, bio-acetate, and recycled materials.

Sell Socially Responsible Eyewear
Many frame companies have powerful social missions, which tie in nicely to product assortment and marketing efforts. A few examples include:

• For every frame purchased, they give a new pair of prescription glasses to a person in need.
• For each frame sold, the company plants a tree and contributes 3% of gross sales to organizations that help find homes for kids in foster care and orphanages.

Marketing Your Missions

Practices who contribute to the betterment of society need to make sure their patients are aware. Any efforts of reducing, reusing, recycling, sustainably sourcing, or being socially responsible can show patients that the practice cares about positively impacting their community and the planet — share missions on social media, display seals or logos of organizations you are a part of, and use vendor POP that advertises the missions you support.

An increasing number of consumers seek products with environmental claims — practices need to get more educated and be proactive in incorporating sustainability into their practice.

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