Folkal Eyewear

EYEWEAR FOR THE PLANET

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THE CHALLENGE

Environmental sustainability has become a key factor in retail and consumer behaviour, with 82% of shoppers saying they want brands to embrace sustainable practices. Despite this, people put buying green in the too hard basket – with 35% saying they don’t purchase due to a lack of information, a lack of sustainable alternatives or the time and effort required to find them. 

This is particularly true when it comes to the eyewear industry. Most sunglasses are made from petroleum-based virgin plastics that take upwards of 450 years to decompose. Because of this this, some manufacturers are trying to remedy the situation, with more sustainable materials and processes.

But venture into your local optical shop and it's next to impossible to get a sense of which frames, lenses and cases are least and most damaging to the environment. And when eyewear manufacturers do talk sustainability, there’s no industry-wide standard to refer to.

 

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THE IDEA

We wanted to create a way for consumers to find all the best planet-friendly eyewear – from any manufacturer – in one place. A way for them to compare models knowing that manufacturers are using the same benchmarks. And for them to be able to trust the data that underpins these benchmarks, knowing that it is reliably and independently verified.

THE SOLUTION

We created Folkal – an online marketplace for sustainable eyewear – with the name and brand identity built on our DNA and mission: to make it easier to find and buy more sustainable eyewear. 

The brand features a number of product features that sets it apart: 

A ground-breaking, world-first sustainability rating system that examines product, case, transport and packaging across criteria including materials, manufacturing process, end of life and emissions, then spits out a simple product ranking to make it easy for consumers to make decisions.

A ‘give back’ mechanism where for every purchase Folkal rescues a plastic bottle from the ocean.

For launch we partnered with global eyewear manufacturer Safilo due to their impressive sustainability credentials and ability to help us scale quickly from a product viewpoint – giving us access to the most planet-friendly products from major brands including Polaroid, Smith, Hugo Boss, Under Armour, Kate Spade and Levis. 

We have invited third party brands who meet our minimum sustainability requirements to sell their products through the marketplace.To date we have already been approached by a number of independent brands who want to find out how to join the movement.

EDGE™ is a trade mark of BUSINESS ESSENTIALS
(AUSTRALASIA) Pty Limited.


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