John Sanchez, vice president of product development (l) and TJ McMeniman, vice president of marketing at Costa, accepting the sustainability award from Essilor.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—Last month, Costa’s Untangled Collection with frames made from recycled fishing nets—was recognized for excellence in sustainability at Essilor’s 15th annual Global Operations Awards Ceremony, held in Creteil, France. The competition drew over 200 entries from around the world and highlights exceptional projects from all global operations teams across the group in nine categories: Customer Satisfaction, Service Improvement, Society, People Development, Safety & Working Conditions, Eco Responsibility, Cost Competitiveness, and New Products & Services and Innovation. The Eco Responsibility category highlights initiatives aiming to reduce or reuse materials, recycle water, reduce energy consumption and/or to reduce waste generation.

“Untangled represents a true cross-functional team effort for Costa, with a goal of reducing and eliminating the most harmful form of ocean plastic pollution while educating consumers on these issues through a groundbreaking, sustainable and fully recyclable product line,” said TJ McMeniman, vice president of marketing at Costa. “The Untangle Our Oceans campaign and Untangled Collection has been an amazing awareness driver and differentiator for the Costa brand, generating over 600 million media impressions to date, strengthened Costa’s leadership in conservation and sustainability, aided our expansion into new markets such as California and helped us better align with new partners such as Patagonia and REI. Not to mention selling over 25,000 sunglasses utilizing 2,200 pounds of fishing nets.”



The award comes on the heels of Costa’s 2nd consecutive-year recognition of Vision Monday and 20/20 Magazine’s “EyeVote Social Purpose: Brand” award and complements the early success of the brand’s Kick Plastic Ambassador program, with more than 500 ECPs and Costa dealers enrolled and growing.