Kayu Bamboo Sunglasses Offer Sight to the Blind
by Warren McLaren, Sydney 
on 01. 5.09
Image: Kayu website
When I happened upon Kayu sunglasses made of bamboo I nearly kept on moving. Did the miniscule amount of plastic found in a pair of glasses frames merit replacement by bamboo? Well, I use a replaceable head toothbrush, so maybe that argument could be made.
But what piqued my interest more, was the statistic that “80% of blindness is curable or preventable, yet 36 million are needlessly blind.” Responding to this dilemma Kayu contributes $50 USD, for each pair of glassses sold, to Unite for Sight who work towards the elimination of preventable blindness.
It seems that this amounts to one sight-restoring cataract surgery in Africa, as well as all needed post-operative medication. Apparently Unite for Sight has provided 600,000 patients with eye care, and performed over 15,000 sight restoring surgeries.
Such business benevolence reminded me of TOMS Shoes, where for every pair of shoes sold another pair is donated to a child in need. So wasn’t surprised, on reading through the Kayu blog that TOMS was in fact a key influence for the direction chosen by Kayu’s founder, Jamie Lim, for her company’s corporate responsibility. :: Kayu Design
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