How to be a great DO Part 7

It’s worth asking suppliers directly what their material story actually is

In this month’s How to be a Great DO, Rebecca Thompson explores how to make sustainability in practice more than just a marketing slogan…

The majority of patients don’t walk in asking for the sustainable option (yet). What patients respond to is confidence, and a recommendation that feels considered.

If sustainability comes into that conversation as the main message, it can feel like pressure, or worse, like guilt – and nobody wants to feel judged for the glasses they bought two years ago.

But when sustainability shows up as part of a good recommendation, rather than the reason for it, it can resonate differently. It becomes a nice thing they learn about a practice they already trust, rather than a cause they’re being asked to join.

I believe that’s the version worth aiming for – and the one that will feel most authentic for practices overwhelmed with the sustainability credentials they see from almost every supplier now.

This isn’t likely to be a major sales driver currently, which may be why many businesses wait to implement sustainable practices; there always seems to be something else to tackle first. But it is one of the things that makes a patient feel good about doing business with you, and that’s worth doing properly even without a clear commercial outcome at this point.

As an overview, there are three main areas to look at when starting to review sustainability and the messaging you want to promote as a practice: product; people and practice; and process. Let’s take a look at each of these in turn.

Product

The material conversation has moved on. Bio-acetate and recycled options like ocean plastic, reclaimed fishing nets, and bio-based nylon are now widely available. So the most honest position is that no frame is impact-free.

Manufacturing, transport and the materials themselves all carry a carbon cost, and claims vary wildly in how credible they are. What a frame the supplier calls ‘eco’ might mean a real shift in sourcing, or it might mean very little. It’s worth asking suppliers directly what their material story actually is, and whether those claims can be backed with anything.

Consider asking suppliers the following questions, which will allow you to make ethical choices and communicate value to patients:

• What percentage is recycled or bio-based? Is this self-reported or does it have third party verification?
• Is there a policy on take-back or recycling at product end of life?
• Where is the material sourced and where is it manufactured?
• Does the factory have sustainable production policies and practises in place?
• Can this product be repaired, or is replacement the only option?
• How frequently are deliveries made, and what are the options to consolidate?
• What packaging/point-of-sale is provided? Is any reusable, recyclable or optional?
• What happens to swarf, offcuts or rejected lenses, and what’s your energy source for production?

Review the processes in your own practice too

People and practice

We can focus on product sustainability and, at times, struggle to get answers. We are, however, in control of what happens in our own practice – so it might be a good place to start making choices that we can be proud of and in turn relate to our patients.

For example:

• Energy supply: is it from a renewable tariff?
• Heating and cooling: is the thermostat set sensibly and adjusted for opening times?
• Team travel: how many drive in alone, and would car-share incentive/cycle-to-work scheme/public transport contribution get used?
• Patient travel: is there anything we could offer for patients who walk, cycle or use public transport to appointments?
• Recycling/re-using policy: look at packaging incoming and outgoing, postage,etc

Process

If there’s one thing worth doing, it’s this: make repair and reglaze the obvious first offer, not necessarily replacement. It’s good service, the more sustainable choice and works particularly well when you are a practice that encourages building an eyewear wardrobe that lasts for years.

Trade-in or donation schemes for old frames are worth having if you don’t already. Some practices refurbish frames and have a pre-loved section. One practice I’ve spoken to in the US does a ‘Swap and Pot Luck’ event, where patients can adopt another’s gently used frame.

There’s no perfect

Nobody in this industry has solved sustainability. Not the brands, not the labs, not the big chains and not the alliances trying to co-ordinate everyone. Recent industry research has been blunt about this – the eyewear sector has a systems problem, with structural gaps in data, recycling infrastructure and consistent claims across the whole chain.

That’s not a reason to do nothing at practice level. The smallest practical action, asking one better question of a supplier, offering a repair instead of a sale, incentivising repair and re-use, is genuinely better than waiting for a perfect answer that doesn’t exist yet.

You don’t need to solve the whole system, just be curious and questioning when it comes your choices and above all else, explain as part of the conversations you are already having, why you made those choices.

Useful links

• Frame the Future: the Responsible Eyewear Alliance. A non-profit bringing brands, suppliers and retailers together on shared sustainability standards. Its Catalyst Study is free to download and gives a genuinely useful map of where the industry’s gaps sit.
• Net Zero Eyecare. Founded by environmental scientist Andrew Clark, focused specifically on practical sustainability in eyecare settings.
• Eyes on Sustainability Conference. An event dedicated to optics and environmental practice.

Rebecca Thompson FBDO is a dispensing optician, eyewear strategist, founder of Eyestyle Studio and writer of Eye Style, a weekly journal exploring the business, design and the future of optics.