Last year, the United States reduced its emissions of climate-warming greenhouse gases for the first time since 2020. The modest 1.9 percent reduction means that US emissions are now 17.2 percent below 2005 levels. However, it will take a significant effort over the next six years to accomplish the ambitious climate goals established by the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and backed by the Biden administration: a 50 percent to 52 percent reduction in emissions from 2005 levels by the end of the decade.¹

Johnson & Johnson’s vision teams are doing their part to help meet these goals by reducing emissions from the company’s operations around the world. The company reports it has made solid progress toward sustainability goals it originally set in 2020: to source 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025 and achieve carbon neutrality across its global operations by 2030. 

“In Vision, we support the sustainability goals held by Johnson & Johnson, which focus on reducing carbon emissions and increasing our use of renewable resources,” says Ryan Reinhardt, vice president supply chain, Vision, at Johnson & Johnson. Today, he claims, Vision operations in the United States and Europe are producing or procuring the equivalent of 100 percent of required electricity from renewable energy sources like solar and wind. Overall, renewable energy covers 87 percent of the company’s energy needs worldwide.²

Implementing Renewable Energy

Johnson & Johnson’s Vision operations have prioritized energy efficiency in production technology, explains Reinhardt, harnessing renewable energy with wind
turbines and solar power throughout the division’s manufacturing facilities in Europe and the United States. 

Vision’s global headquarters and manufacturing plant in Jacksonville, Florida, has a 10-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Jacksonville Electric Authority that enables it to qualify as being “100 percent powered by solar energy.” The plant in Jacksonville manufactures more than 90 percent of the company’s U.S. supply of Acuvue contact lenses. In Limerick, Ireland, the other facility where Acuvue lenses are produced, a 3-megawatt wind turbine produces all the plant’s power, according to the company. Vision has also signed PPAs that cover its facilities in the Netherlands and Sweden. 

“We save 48,000 tons of CO₂ annually through renewable and energy efficient programs and have invested $50MM at our Limerick and Jacksonville manufacturing sites to reduce our carbon footprint,” said Reinhardt. “Investments in energy-efficient equipment and installation of a co-generation facility for our Surgical Vision operations are expected to reduce our CO₂ emissions even further.” He also noted that Vision’s energy management system is designed to reduce energy use throughout its operations and has been ISO 50001 certified.

Reducing Waste

Recycling is another aspect of Johnson & Johnson’s approach to sustainability. Keeping waste out of landfills is important because decomposing organic material in landfills emits the greenhouse gases methane and carbon dioxide, while waste chemicals from landfills can contaminate nearby groundwater.

Vision recycles 89 percent of raw materials, such as product boxes, carton cardboard, and swabs, on location at its manufacturing sites, so that less material ends up in the waste stream, says Reinhardt. Another Vision facility in the Netherlands has been certified as “zero waste to landfill.” The company has also taken measures to manage water use at its manufacturing facilities throughout the world. The company has removed the 10 most prominent single-use plastics (SUPs) from its cafeterias throughout the world. In the United Kingdom, Vision is piloting a SUP replacement product that can be reused up to 3,000 times.

To reduce waste, the company also constantly innovates how it produces and transports products, Reinhardt said. In the United States, Vision reduced the amount of paper used in contact lens packaging by 60 percent, saving 57 tons of paper a year. In Europe, the company eliminated plastic pouches that were included with contact lens delivery notices on customer orders, saving more than 12.7 tons of plastic annually. Overall, he said, plastic content in contact lens packaging has been reduced by 40 percent across Vision operations. 

“By reducing secondary packaging for all our vision products, we’ve made significant headway in reducing the impact of shipping, distribution, energy consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions,” said Reinhardt. “We’re striving to limit our use of natural resources as we work to find new solutions to better protect the environment.”

Efficiency and Recycling

The waste reduction philosophy carries over to the manufacture and use of Vision’s portfolio of products. The company’s SmartLoad IOL delivery system pairs a reusable titanium screw-type inserter with a preloaded disposable cartridge containing the lens. The SmartLoad system has all the benefits of preloaded delivery, such as eliminating manual loading errors and minimizing the risk of infection, but, according to Reinhardt, produces 4.2 times less waste than the average preloaded disposable delivery system.

Used contact lenses and plastic eye care or lens care materials often end up in landfills or waterways, because they generally cannot be processed in standard recycling facilities due to their small size and the type of plastic used to manufacture them. J&J’s vision teams have partnered with Greenflow in the United States, and with TerraCycle in the United Kingdom, to recycle more than 13.3 million contact lenses, blister packs, and foils as part of the Acuvue recycling program. 

Successful “green” initiatives such as these do not happen by accident; corporations must integrate sustainability into all aspects of strategy. “We recognize that environmental health impacts human health, and within Vision we have been setting public environmental performance goals for nearly 30 years,” says Reinhardt. 

“As a leader in eye health, we are guided by a strong sense of purpose, working to improve lives for more than 40 million people around the world—making vision possible. That commitment extends to how we innovate to support the health of the planet,” agrees Peter Menziuso, company group chairman, Vision, Johnson & Johnson. OASC

References

1. Brady J. U.S. cut climate pollution in 2023, but not fast enough to limit global warming. All Things Considered. January 10, 2024. Accessed June 23, 2024. https://www.npr.org/2024/01/10/1223747804/u-s-cut-climate-pollution-in-2023-but-not-fast-enough-to-limit-global-warming

2. Johnson & Johnson. Our Approach to Climate Action. Accessed June 25, 2024. https://www.jnj.com/our-societal-impact/global-environmental-sustainability/our-approach-to-climate-action