On October 14, thousands of EssilorLuxottica employees from around the globe celebrated World Sight Day with the aim of putting vision first for future generations. Working with local partners, they raised awareness about the importance of good vision for children with the Group’s first corporate World Sight Day campaign, and carried out various outreach, eye screening and fundraising initiatives.

World Sight Day is an annual day of awareness held on the second Thursday of October, dedicated to raising awareness on the importance of eyecare around the world since 2000. It is the most important advocacy and communication day on the eye health calendar.

At EssilorLuxottica, this is an occasion to raise awareness of the Group’s wider Mission: to help people see more, be more and live life to its fullest’, and to take action towards the Group’s ambition to eliminate uncorrected poor vision by 2050. This is part of its Corporate Social Responsibility program called « Eyes on the Planet » through the Eyes on World Sight pillar.

This year, EssilorLuxottica created its first World Sight Day campaign as a unified company. It focuses on raising awareness about poor eyesight in children as a global health issue and draws parents’ attention to the importance of regular eye exams. Globally, millions of children still lack access to vision care, putting them at a disadvantage in terms of learning and achieving their full potential.

Put Their Vision First

The Group collaborated with renowned Australian artist and illustrator Karan Singh to create bold, colorful and eye-catching visuals to highlight the importance of eye health. Central to the campaign is the putvisionfirst.com website, which offers people the possibility to learn about the importance of good vision for children and to take action through an online vision-screening test.

Like every year, the Group’s employees demonstrated an outstanding level of engagement with a series of successful initiatives implemented across the world, despite the ongoing pandemic.

North America

EssilorLuxottica North America organized a virtual assembly that gathered thousands of colleagues across the region on October 14. All company divisions (Direct to Consumer, Professional Solutions and Operations) also participated, at different times, in a virtual sale for eyewear initiative, where proceeds were donated to OneSight* to fund its sustainable and charitable activities. In Canada, World Sight Day was an opportunity to launch an annual vision-screening program, with mobile clinic visits in Vancouver, Toronto and Quebec. Essilor Vision Foundation (EVF) USA provided eye exams and glasses to 39 Special Olympic athletes at the inaugural regional Fall Games on October 16. EVF and EssilorLuxottica have supported Special Olympics for many years and are dedicated to continuing to provide high-quality vision care to individuals with intellectual disabilities.

*OneSight is an independent non-profit organization founded and sponsored by Luxottica that has pioneered the development of sustainable eyecare models

China

EssilorLuxottica China hosted a virtual classroom event on vision health in a key primary school in Shanghai. In addition, a 3D book, titled “Our Eyes”, jointly developed by EssilorLuxottica and a think tank affiliated with the Ministry of Education in 2020, was distributed to all attending students at the school’s library. In Yunnan province, 30 employee volunteers from EssilorLuxottica conducted eye exams for 1,803 students from Shidian county’s primary and secondary schools, and equipped 1,493 students who were in need of eyewear. This is part of a long-term philanthropy program supported by EVF China, in partnership with OneSight, Education in Sight in Yunnan, and the China Charity Aid Foundation for Children.

France

The Group’s employees in France conducted vision-screening activities in twenty Parisian town halls and offered a full day of free vision screening to children in Ligny-en-Barrois. In Dijon, a vision screening was organized throughout the day on World Sight Day. At Luxottica France, an awareness talk was organized for employees in partnership with OneSight.

LATAM

Instituto Ver e Viver, the 2.5 NVG initiative in Brazil, partnered with OIM, the UN International Organization for Migration, to provide refugee women with access to visual correction. In Colombia, employees offered free eye exams for children at a children’s foundation and held awareness talks for parents to highlight the impact of poor vision on children. In Mexico, employees launched a crowdfunding campaign with the aim of raising USD $20,000 to provide vision screenings and equipment to 3,000 children from underserved communities.

South Africa

In South Africa, the African Eye Institute (AEI), in partnership with CooperVision and 2.5 NVG, provided free eye examinations and spectacles to children needing them at two schools based in the South of Durban.

Philanthropic initiatives

EssilorLuxottica’s philanthropic partners, including the Essilor Vision Foundation (EVF), Vision For Life and OneSight, also deployed a range of local initiatives to ease access to screening and raise awareness on poor vision internationally. EVF rolled out a series of initiatives in France, China, the United States, Canada, Latin America, and India. This year, OneSight joined forces with IAPB to promote the Institute’s campaign to engage over 1 million people worldwide in pledging to have their sight tested. The organization will contribute to the cause with 25,000 screenings and exams through school vision screenings, sustainable vision centers globally, and charitable clinics, where specialized teams from Essilor and Luxottica will help provide vision services to students.

Salmoiraghi & Viganò supports the right to good eyesight

Salmoiraghi & Viganò, an Italian premium optical retail brand owned by Luxottica, supported World Sight Day by promoting a series of initiatives that combine prevention, sustainability and solidarity. In addition to their recent launch of a sustainable range for children made with organic nylon, Salmoiraghi & Viganò will be collaborating with UNICEF Italy to guarantee an education to over 23,000 children in disadvantaged areas of the world.

Supporting the global road safety agenda on World Sight Day

On World Sight Day, EssilorLuxottica announced its partnership with the Automobile Club of Italy (ACI) to launch a national “Action for good vision on the road” campaign, with the aim to mobilize public, institutions, mobility players and the optical industry, following the recent United Nations call to ensure good vision for all road users.

Beyond World Sight Day, EssilorLuxottica acts on many levels every day of the year to elevate awareness on the importance of vision correction and vision protection, educating policy makers and consumers with dedicated campaigns but also supporting expert-to-expert knowledge sharing on vision science and patient needs.