This workshop will explore the intersection of sustainability and social equity within the global cosmetics industry, with a focus on how environmental burdens and access to sustainable beauty products vary across racial, geographic, and socioeconomic lines.
Students will critically examine who bears the environmental and ethical costs of cosmetic production, who is included in the current “clean” or “green” beauty narrative and how access to “sustainable” beauty products is shaped by race, class, and geography.
The workshop will consider the various dimensions of diversity mentioned above, and global inequality which are crucial to understanding the ethical landscape of cosmetic science and marketing. For instance, while consumers in high-income markets enjoy “sustainable” products, vulnerable communities, particularly in the Global South, often face the consequences of resource extraction (e.g., mica mining, palm oil harvesting), pollution from manufacturing, and cosmetic waste dumping. Race and socioeconomic status also play a role in product accessibility and representation, with sustainable beauty often marketed and positioned as a premium lifestyle choice, inaccessible to many due to price, availability, or cultural exclusion.
This session is designed to complement the scientific and business orientation of the Cosmetic Science course, by encouraging students to think beyond formulation and product performance. It will integrate ethical, environmental, and socioeconomic considerations that are increasingly relevant in regulatory, marketing, and R&D contexts.
As this is designed as a standalone workshop, it is possible to deliver within existing schedules and infrastructure, ideally in collaboration with a guest working in the field of ethics, sustainability, and equality. The themes of racial inequality, sustainability and social justice are all covered extensively within the current curriculum but usually discussed as separate issues, whereas this workshop will aim to integrate and discuss the intersectional nature of them. The workshop content also responds to student feedback for even more interactive learning sessions with guests, as well as requests for more case studies around racial and socioeconomic issues.
Hi Maria
I hope that you are well. Thank you for sharing your intervention design idea, which I found very compelling, particularly the way that you frame the cosmetics industry as both an environmental and a social justice space. I thought it was really refreshing to see a curriculum intervention that invites students to confront the contradictions embedded in the very industries they may aspire to join and to engage with global structures of power and inequality (LO2) rather than simply learning about them in abstract terms. This links well to LO1 but you could also explore how your intervention sits within institutional (UAL), sector-wide (e.g. Advance HE), and industry frameworks/guidance on social justice and sustainability. Going forward, you can also draw on relevant resources from the literature. For example, Fernandez et al. (2024) warn against interventions that treat inclusion or social justice as a top-down or managerial exercise and your intervention seems to push back from a student/teacher level. Nichols and Stahl (2019) emphasise that intersectionality in HE is not just identity work—it also requires institutional critique.
In terms of the sustainability of the intervention (LO4), it’d be good to consider how this could be more than a standalone one-off situation, perhaps by pairing this this a resource that would allow students to continue sharing their views, experiences on this topic. For example, you could set up a pre-task where students look at a cosmetic brand and the visual representation on their website, or look in https://www.ethicalconsumer.org, which provides regularly updated reports on ethical ratings of beauty brands, and post their findings and first impressions in a Padlet or Miro Board, and then they could update this during or after the workshop, which would also add an interactive inclusive element while building a repository of potential case studies that address intersectional and sustainability issues (so also LO2).
There’s an underlying ethical commitment here (e.g. critique of “clean beauty” narratives, concern for Global South exploitation), strong alignment with inclusive values and a clear understanding of systemic inequities, particularly as they relate to race, geography, and class in sustainability discourses, which relates to LO3, going forward, you could also reflect on how your own worldview, experience, background, and role (e.g. teacher, facilitator, co-learner, practitioner) shape the choices you’re making in the workshop’s structure, content, and tone.
I hope this helps. Regards, Victor
Below, just a reminder of the learning outcomes.
LO1: Critically evaluate institutional, national and global perspectives of equality and diversity in relation to your academic practice context. [Enquiry]
LO2: Manifest your understanding of practices of inequity, their impact, and the implications for your professional context. [Knowledge]
LO3: Articulate the development of your positionality and identity through the lens of inclusive practices. [Communication]
LO4: Enact a sustainable transformation that applies intersectional social justice within your practice. [Realisation]