(PRESS RELEASE) CHARENTON-LE-PONT, FRANCE — EssilorLuxottica has been named on the 2022 Fortune Change the World list, taking the 6th spot within this annual prestigious ranking which recognizes companies that have had a positive social impact through activities that are part of their core business strategy. Among 50 companies, the Group is honored for its commitment and leadership in orchestrating industry-wide efforts to eliminate uncorrected poor vision in a generation, as part of its mission to help people ‘see more and be more’.
Good vision is a basic human right. The ability to see clearly is essential to learn effectively in school, work productively, drive safely, and enhance overall quality of lives. Yet 1 in 3 or 2.7 billion people around the world, 90% of whom live in developing communities, cannot see clearly due to eye conditions that can be corrected by a simple pair of eyeglasses.
To address the issue, EssilorLuxottica has, over the past decade, launched a series of initiatives around the world to bring acess to vision care where it wasn’t available before such as deploying rural training programs to create primary vision care providers as well as developing low-cost prescription glasses and diagnostic tools. This ranking speaks to the significant social impact these efforts have delivered with over 21,000 primary vision care providers and more than 220 vision centers providing over 530 million people with access to vision care to date. To further scale efforts, the company founded the OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation earlier this year, which unites many of the Group’s global advocacy and philanthropic actions, raising awareness on the importance of good vision and supporting the creation of sustainable vision care through philanthropic grants. The Foundation will play a leading role in the fight against poor vision.
This recognition coincides with the celebration of World Sight Day, the most important day of the year for vision care on October 13. This year, the OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation is upholding everyone’s ‘Right to See’ through an impactful campaign, which includes the organization of hundreds of vision screening events around the world.
“As the industry leader, we’ve gathered tremendous momentum on our journey to eliminate uncorrected poor vision in a generation, reaching many milestones such as successfully linking vision care to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, which led to the unanimously-passed ‘Vision for Everyone’ resolution,” share Francesco Milleri and Paul du Saillant, respectively CEO and Deputy CEO of EssilorLuxottica. “This accolade celebrates our role as a truly purpose-led organization focused on changing the world by bringing everybody, everywhere the life-changing benefits of good vision.”