Company Launches Groundbreaking Sustainability Initiative in New Countries
and Introduces Impact Dashboard
SAN RAMON, Calif., April 20, 2022—On Earth Day and every day, CooperVision is acting to create a more sustainable world. The company’s first-of-its-kind plastic neutrality initiative has expanded to include additional countries in Europe and Latin America, and will soon launch in select Asian countries. Beginning today, eye care professionals and contact lens wearers can view the program’s collective impact—made possible by their partnership with the company—using the new CooperVision Impact Dashboard, which provides updates on how much plastic waste has been collected in collaboration with Plastic Bank®.
Last year, CooperVision pioneered the world’s first plastic neutral contact lenses by funding Plastic Bank’s collection, processing and reuse of general ocean-bound plastic waste that is equal to the weight of the plastic contained in designated products in North America and Europe. As the program has grown, the company expects to prevent the equivalent of nearly 90 million plastic bottles from reaching Earth’s oceans in 2022.
“For CooperVision, plastic neutrality is about making a meaningful, measurable difference in partnership with eye care professionals and wearers. By simply prescribing and wearing our plastic neutral lenses, they’re making an impact. With our Impact Dashboard, everyone can see for themselves how these contributions quickly add up. It displays the eye-opening amount of ocean-bound plastic we’ve recovered to date and the local communities we’ve empowered—working together,” said Simon Seshadri, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing, CooperVision.
Beyond the positive impact on the environment, CooperVision’s plastic neutrality initiative enables Plastic Bank collectors in nearly 200 coastal communities to clean up their towns and villages while earning credits for necessities such as groceries, cooking fuel, school tuition, and health insurance. The Impact Dashboard also includes an interactive map of the communities impacted to date.
As a leading manufacturer of contact lenses, CooperVision is dedicated to reducing its environmental footprint, and its efforts extend beyond plastic neutrality. The company has a strong track record of sustainable manufacturing and operations focused on areas in which it can make the greatest impact. CooperVision has developed best-in-class manufacturing processes resulting in award-winning conservation efforts in Puerto Rico and prestigious sustainability certifications in Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Spain, and the U.K.
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About CooperVision
CooperVision, a division of CooperCompanies (NYSE:COO), is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of contact lenses. The company produces a full array of daily disposable, two-week and monthly soft contact lenses that feature advanced materials and optics, and premium rigid gas permeable lenses for orthokeratology and scleral designs. CooperVision has a strong heritage of addressing the toughest vision challenges such as astigmatism, presbyopia, childhood myopia, and highly irregular corneas; and offers the most complete portfolio of spherical, toric and multifocal products available. Through a combination of innovative products and focused practitioner support, the company brings a refreshing perspective to the marketplace, creating real advantages for customers and wearers. For more information, visit www.coopervision.com.
About CooperCompanies
CooperCompanies ("Cooper") is a global medical device company publicly traded on the NYSE (NYSE:COO). Cooper operates through two business units, CooperVision and CooperSurgical. CooperVision brings a refreshing perspective on vision care with a commitment to developing a wide range of high-quality products for contact lens wearers and providing focused practitioner support. CooperSurgical is committed to advancing the health of women, babies and families with its diversified portfolio of products and services focusing on medical devices and fertility & genomics. Headquartered in San Ramon, Calif., Cooper has a workforce of more than 12,000 with products sold in over 100 countries. For more information, please visit www.coopercos.com.
About Plastic Bank
Plastic Bank empowers the regenerative society. The social enterprise helps the world stop ocean plastic while improving the lives of collector communities. Plastic Bank builds ethical recycling ecosystems in coastal communities and reprocesses the materials for reintroduction into the global manufacturing supply chain. Collectors receive bonuses for the materials they collect, which helps them provide basic family necessities such as groceries, cooking fuel, school tuition, and health insurance. Plastic Bank's Alchemy™ blockchain platform secures the entire transaction and provides real-time data visualization – allowing for transparency, traceability, and rapid scalability. The collected material is reborn as Social Plastic®, which can be easily reintegrated into products and packaging as part of a closed-loop supply chain. Learn more at plasticbank.com.
Media Contact
Heather Kowalczyk, APR, McDougall Communications
heather@mcdougallpr.com or +1-585-330-4878