What if safety eyewear could protect both workers and the environment? Bollé Safety puts that question to the test.
When working on a mine site, the likelihood of locking eyes with a dangerous hazard is high. From dust particles and loose metal fragments to chemical projectiles and debris, the risks are many and varied.
Miners rely on appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) and durable eyewear to safeguard themselves against some of those harmful elements.
However, as environmental responsibility rapidly gains momentum in the industry, PPE is tasked with more than just evading foreign bodies.
Beyond shielding workers from visual impairment, safety glasses must now also protect the mine’s green interests.
And Bollé Safety is seeing to this growing demand in the market.
As PPE eyewear specialists, Bollé Safety believes eyes can be the window to a safer and eco-friendly future. Without compromising on safety, the company has successfully integrated sustainable practices straight into its product design, manufacturing and packaging stages to cater to the increased need for environmentally conscious safety equipment.
At a time when pressure is building on miners to ensure worker wellbeing while meeting their environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals, Bollé Safety is stepping up to the plate.
Sustainable switch
Bollé Safety’s sustainability vision is thrust forward with a simple desire: wanting to live in a better world.
And as most people know, all global change first starts at home.
Driven by that very idea, the company has opted for an “up-front” approach in developing its products.
“Even if a product is fully recyclable, we don’t know if the user is going to do the right thing and recycle it,” Bollé Safety APAC trade marketing manager Tamara Mika told Safe to Work.
“We have zero control over that, and if they throw it in the wrong bin all that good work has gone to waste.”
So in addition to developing products and packaging which can be recycled, Bollé Safety decided to enact change where possible. It now produces several fit-for-purpose safety glasses from ethically-sourced recycled materials, effectively reducing emissions at the front-end.
“When we have full control, which we do during product manufacturing, we’re trying to do everything we can to make our offerings environmentally friendly,” Mika said. “We ensure our glasses are sustainable before they even reach the customer.”
Going Green
What started with humble beginnings in 2000 has rapidly accelerated in recent years. Supported by Bollé Safety’s golden triage – optical clarity, safety standards and sustainability –the Go Green initiative has driven the company to radicalise its approach towards product development.
Putting its best foot forward from the get-go, Bollé Safety has integrated eco-design at its core and has set high standards for itself.
Products bearing its ‘GOGREEN’ label are required to satisfy clearly defined prerequisites while adhering to at least one sustainable criterion.
For products to be assigned the eco tag, their recyclable or biomaterial make-up must come with certifications or proof indicating their benefits.
Products also need to satisfy various sustainability criteria. They must be made up of at least 20 per cent recycled or bio-based material, possess over 50 per cent increased durability, ensure CO2 reduction is 20 per cent higher than a standard product, or be almost entirely recyclable at the end of their life.
Bollé Safety’s environmental push doesn’t hamper product calibre; with premium quality retention at the centre of its sustainability research.
“Bollé Safety is known for quality and our optics are second to none,” Bollé Safety Queensland and New South Wales sales manager Craig Yuile told Safe to Work.
“Traditionally, when you have a recycled product like toilet paper, for example, it’s not as white and the paper is different. With things like toilet paper, we’re willing to accept that lower quality. We would never accept that with safety glasses; they still need to be perfect. That perfection is what we’re creating.
“Our products are based on extensive research. We spend a significant amount of time sourcing ethical and recycled materials, before we then do a lot of testing with prototypes to ensure they are of a durable quality.”
Triple vision
Released in 2021, the frames currently available under Bollé’s Go Green series are a combination of style, safety and sustainability.
Klassee – Industrial is a Bollé Safety prescription eco-frame compliant with international standards. Made in Grilamid BTR 600 LS, a bio-sourced polyamide based on 58 per cent renewable resources, nearly half of its weight comes from castor oil.
Possessing a durable mould, Bollé Safety reduces waste by 49 per cent during the manufacturing process of Komet – Industrial. This range also serves as an entry-level polarised product to increase accessibility to premium lens technology.
In developing these glasses, Bollé Safety used a new injection process, allowing it to reduce its footprint during manufacturing, one of the top sources of carbon emissions in a product’s lifecycle.
Seamlessly Safe
Bollé Safety’s research and development team is firing on all cylinders, beyond improvements to its sustainable practices.
Alongside addressing PPE-related environmental concerns, the company is responding to another issue commonly faced by remote mine operators: access to services.
Through its new online prescription system, the Seamless Program, Bollé Safety is making it easier for miners to secure the right fit. The program’s augmented reality allows customers to virtually try on glasses, extracting measurements through a precise pupillary distance calculator. They can tailor eyewear to their liking, upload it to the system, and place the order.
“It’s an amazing platform because, for people working in the middle of nowhere, it can be really challenging to get to an optometrist,” Mika said. “Since its launch in November … we’ve completed thousands of Seamless jobs.”
The Seamless Program isn’t the only product to be embraced by industry, with the company’s entire suite of offerings attracting demand.
“We only do high quality, and we only do safety eyewear,” Yuile said. “You get two eyes and you can’t replace them – ensuring their safety is our specialty.”
This feature appeared in the July–August edition of Safe to Work.
