Eyes On Sustainability: Step by step

^{Woodhouse Opticians on stage at the Optician Awards 2022}

Sustainability has shot up the corporate agenda in recent years and everyone, rightly so, seems to want to do their bit. While some practices speak loudly but do little, two practices – Blackpool-based Woodhouse Opticians, and Pearce and Blackmore Opticians, which operates from two sites in the Cardiff area – have become known for the polar opposite.

The former won Sustainable Practice of the Year at the Optician Awards 2022 while the latter was shortlisted for the same. Their stories are inspirational.

Sukie Woodhouse, director at Woodhouse Opticians, tells how her practice’s journey began when ‘during lockdown I became increasingly aware of the amount of plastic wrapping on my groceries; lettuce wrapped in thin films of plastic and even broccoli and bananas’. Living by the sea, her walks along the beach revealed ‘tons of plastic fishing gear, netting twine, chip forks straws and balloons.’