In our practise we all care about our environment. We have vented to each other over our frustrations of when people just leave their litter everywhere. We recycle as much as we can, including sending old frames to Vision Aid and supported the kickstarter campaign of Cardiff’s first zero-waste shop, Ripple living.
We also house the beautiful brand Eco eyewear. Eco was an idea conceived by Alessandro Lanaro, the founder of Modo eyewear. He had a vision to create the first eyewear brand that had sustainability and social responsibility as its primary commitments.
LOOK GOOD Being environmentally friendly and looking good is the best of all worlds. ECO is designed by the boutique eyewear firm MODO to be on trend and easy to wear.
FEEL GOOD ECO Biobased eyewear is made from 63% plant-based materials, certified by the USDA. ECO recycled is the only eyewear brand in the world made up of 95% recycled materials. The company is also certified by UL Environment, so when you purchase ECO, you minimize the use of new resources.
DO GOOD Eco plants a tree for each frame you buy. They have planted over one million trees in Cameroon to date.
Currently they are focused on the Western highlands of Cameroon, Africa where they help farmers develop sustainable land-use practises. Farmers now plant trees to improve the soil and crop yields and to protect the land from further erosion. Trees have enabled many farmers to develop new sources of income by selling fruit, raising livestock and producing honey. Currently over 2000 people benefit from the programme, which is expanding into the surrounding communities.
The country has moved on from industrial logging which destroyed about 80% of the forests but so much still remains to be done to reach its full potential. Substantial biodiversity and habitats for the native plants and animals have been eradicated due to the deforestation. Chimpanzees, Drill and Gorillas all reside in these areas and they are close to extinction.
When we first heard of this brand we were sceptical. We thought they might be a bit gimmicky and not have the high quality standards that we set at our practise but we have all fallen in love with this brand.
The quality is astounding but the biggest pro to this brand (after the ethos of it) is the lightness of the frames. They are some of the lightest frames we stock and even high prescription lenses would still be lighter than a standard frame. The styles are current and fresh, some muted some more statement. They have an extensive range without being overbearing and have a style to suit everyone. We have just had a new batch in but they won’t be around long. We have already sold 5 frames in two days because they are beautiful but everyone is realising that this is the way we need to go in life. The world needs looking after and steps need to be taken by each and every one of us so why not start with something as simple as your next frame. All frames we have come in several colours so if there is a frame you like but would rather a different colour we can happily order it in on approval for you to look at.
Another great feature is that a large selection of the plastic frames have a clip-on sunglass option. The sun lenses are polarised so they are a high quality lens and the clip-ons attach by two little magnets so a simple, effective way to change from glasses to sunglasses. They also come in a range of colours so you could have the matching colour to your frame or mix it up for a different look.
We can’t recommend this brand highly enough. Any queries just pop in and we can talk you through the options.
“It’s a conceptual innovation. One day all frames should be done this way. We’re happy
To be leading the change” – Alessandro Lanaro, Creator of ECO
