Charenton-le-Pont, France – Essilor announced today that it was ranked No. 5 in the 2016 Newsweek Green Rankings, created in partnership with Corporate Knights and HIP Investor. Since 2009, the Newsweek Green Rankings have been one of the world’s foremost corporate environmental rankings which assess the overall environmental performance of the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the United States and the 500 largest publicly traded companies globally.

With 61,000 employees in 63 countries, nearly 540 production sites on five continents and more than $2.4 billion (€2 billion) in purchasing, Essilor’s “footprint” is larger and more diverse than ever. The company’s significant growth in recent years, along with changes in regulations and stakeholder expectations, has led Essilor to raise the bar in terms of its environmental sustainability responsibilities.

All over the world, each Essilor entity is engaged in a continuous improvement approach and contributes at its own level to the main drivers of the company’s sustainable and responsible development: reducing water and energy consumption; innovating; promoting diversity; ensuring quality working conditions; and connecting suppliers and customers to its mission. Concerning the optimization of natural resources management, the company has reduced water consumption by 40% and energy consumption by 22% in its mass production plants over the last 7 years.

In 2015, the company was ranked, for the fourth consecutive year, among the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World (Global 100) Index by Corporate Knights. US magazine Forbes also ranked the Group amongst the World’s Most Innovative Companies for the fifth year running. Lastly, Essilor was selected as one of 50 companies that are changing the world in the first edition of Fortune magazine’s “Change the World” list.

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