Vision in Action: Alcon’s 2025 Social Impact & Sustainability Report

AT A GLANCE IN 2025: Alcon delivered 157,000+ children's vision screenings, reached 5M+ people with cataract care, invested $990M+ in R&D, reduced Scope 1 & 2 emissions by 35%, and diverted 99% of non-hazardous waste from landfill.¹

Clear vision can change the course of a life, and for millions of people around the world, that change is now within reach. Alcon’s 2025 Social Impact & Sustainability Report (SISR) highlights progress in expanding access to eye care, from delivering more than 157,000 vision screenings for children to helping reach over 5 million people living with untreated cataracts.¹ These milestones demonstrate how focused action and global partnerships are improving lives today while building momentum for the future.

While there is still much work to be done to improve the vision of patients worldwide—including 1.8 billion people living with presbyopia, 1.6 billion with dry eye disease, 76 million with glaucoma, and 65 million experiencing moderate-to-severe vision impairment from cataracts—our SIS strategy is designed to support lasting, systemic changes across the global eye care landscape.^2-5 The strategy is built upon three interconnected pillars—Brilliant Lives, Brilliant Innovation, and Brilliant Planet—which are collectively powered by Alcon’s 25,000+ associates and the strength of our partnerships worldwide.

“The progress reflected in this year’s report demonstrates what’s possible when innovation, partnership and purpose work together, said Charles Herget, Global Head of Social Impact & Sustainability. “Whether expanding children’s vision screenings, strengthening cataract surgery training programs or advancing sustainability efforts across our operations, we are focused on creating long-term impact that improves access to quality eye care for communities around the world.”
 

Exceeding Our 2025 Children’s Vision Screening Commitment

We work with our partners to support Brilliant Lives by striving for a world where treatable, preventable eye health conditions receive the attention they need, including pediatric myopia, which affects approximately one-third of children and adolescents worldwide.⁶

In 2021, Alcon set out to help improve vision and enhance classroom success with 150,000 children’s vision screenings by 2025, including comprehensive care for those in need, ensuring that more children can reach their full learning potential.¹

With that goal exceeded by over 7,000 screenings, we are now setting our sights on a new goal: 200,000 additional vision screenings and comprehensive follow-up care by 2030.¹
 

Cementing the Legacy of our 2025 Cataract Surgery Goal

Also in 2021, Alcon committed to working with our partners through philanthropic support and training programs to help improve vision for 5 million people afflicted with untreated cataracts in low- and middle-income countries by 2025, including 1 million considered cataract blind.^1,*,**

This goal was also met, reaching approximately 1.6 million individuals in 2025 alone.¹ Even with this success, we remain committed to supporting improved vision across low- and middle-income regions with limited eye care access around the world.  

Now, by 2030, Alcon aims to deliver comprehensive clinical training to at least 3,000 ophthalmic surgeons through its surgical development programs, including the Phaco and Vitreoretinal Development Programs.

Why pivot from the number of people afflicted to the number of surgeons reached with high-quality professional development? Through the Phaco Development Program, Alcon trains ophthalmic surgeons to provide a lifetime of cataract and retinal surgeries, as many as 2,000 per year, which will have an exponential impact on lives and communities in the places that need it most.^1,7 In fact, since its launch in 2008, the Phaco Development Program has enabled over 15 million Phaco surgeries in China, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Nepal, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia and Egypt.^1,†
 

Alcon Invested More Than $990M in R&D to Advance 2025 Innovation

As the global leader in eye care, our SIS report also outlines Alcon’s push to drive Brilliant Innovation in vision around the world. Alcon’s 2025 innovation impact includes:

•    $990M+ in R&D investment, up from $876M in 2024¹
•    80+ pipeline products advanced¹
•    35% increase in major market product approvals (50) year over year¹
•    16 new Alcon Seed Fund investments in promising technologies¹

Alcon also launched six first-to-market products across business lines and therapeutic areas in 2025, including the UNITY® Vitreoretinal Cataract System, the Clareon® PanOptix® Pro Intraocular Lens, Voyager® Direct Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty and TRYPTYR® (acoltremon ophthalmic solution) 0.003%.¹
 

Alcon Reduced Scope 1 & 2 Emissions by More Than 35% Since 2021

Our planet is worth seeing. That’s why Alcon is working to create a more sustainable world and deliver on our purpose to help people See Brilliantly, so they can live brilliantly. As part of this commitment, Alcon continues to progress toward meeting its 2030 environmental goals:

•    Reach carbon neutrality across Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions globally
•    Divert from landfill 100% of non-hazardous waste originating from our manufacturing sites and internal distribution centers

We achieved more than a 35% reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions between 2021 and 2025.¹ This reduction is the result of striving to reduce energy consumption through targeted efficiency projects, transitioning to renewable energy where feasible and embedding responsible business practices into our daily operations. In 2025, our Fort Worth campus procured approximately 97% renewable energy, and our Houston manufacturing site procured 100%.¹

Additionally, Alcon diverted more than 99% of non-hazardous waste generated at manufacturing sites and distribution centers from landfills in 2025, approaching our 100% goal.¹
 

Alcon’s 2025 Progress Reflects a Long-Term Commitment to Expanding Eye Care Access

Our purpose to help people See Brilliantly guides every goal we set, innovation we advance, and partnership that we embark on. The achievements and progress outlined in our 2025 SIS report are indicative of our commitment to this purpose, but we’ve only just begun.

For more information on Alcon’s Social Impact & Sustainability strategy, and to read the full 2025 Social Impact & Sustainability report, visit https://www.alcon.com/about-us/social-impact-and-sustainability/.
 

*As defined by the World Health Organization, Blindness and Vision Impairment.
**Low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), as defined by group policy at time of commitment in 2021
† As defined by group policy at the time of commitment
 

References

1. 2025 Alcon Social Impact & Sustainability Report
2. Fricke TR, Tahhan N, Resnikoff S, et al. Global prevalence of presbyopia and vision impairment from uncorrected presbyopia: Systematic review, meta-analysis, and modelling. Ophthalmology. 2018 Oct;125(10):1492-1499. doi: 10.1016/j.ophtha.2018.04.013. Epub 2018 May 9. PMID: 29753495.
3. 2025 Alcon Annual Report.
4. Allison K, Patel D, Alabi O. Epidemiology of Glaucoma: The Past, Present, and Predictions for the Future. Cureus. 2020 Nov 24;12(11):e11686. doi: 10.7759/cureus.11686. PMID: 33391921; PMCID: PMC7769798.
5. World Health Organization Report on Vision, 2019.
6. Liang J, Pu Y, Chen J, et al Global prevalence, trend and projection of myopia in children and adolescents from 1990 to 2050: a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis. British Journal of Ophthalmology 2025;109:362-371.
7. Chen X, Xu J, Chen X, Yao K. Cataract: Advances in surgery and whether surgery remains the only treatment in future. Adv Ophthalmol Pract Res. 2021 Oct 21;1(1):100008. doi: 10.1016/j.aopr.2021.100008. PMID: 37846393; PMCID: PMC10577864
    

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