Green Beauty? Unmasking the Dark Side of the Cosmetic Industry

According to Euromonitor, sales of premium beauty products were expected to reach 151 billion US dollars in 2023, compared to 100 billion in 2021. The beauty industry is booming like never before. While awareness of the precarious production conditions in the textile sector seems to be steadily increasing, there are hardly any reports on the working conditions and production processes in the cosmetics and beauty sector. Yet cosmetic products are constant companions in our daily lives, often packaged in plastics. However, plastic frequently ends up in the wrong bin, which means it is not recycled and can take up to 500 years to decompose. It finds its way into forests, rivers, agricultural land, and even into food as microplastics – and ultimately into the human body. According to Zero Waste Europe, 120 billion packaging units are produced annually for the global cosmetics industry.
In this seminar, we want to explore the opportunities that Fairtrade-certified raw materials in cosmetics and personal care products can offer – for example, helping producers to increase their Fairtrade sales and access new markets. Many of the Fairtrade raw materials already available could also be used in beauty products, such as shea butter, honey, or sugar. Working conditions, particularly regarding health protection, are significantly better on Fairtrade-certified plantations than on non-certified ones.
 

Global Food Systems – Sovereignty or Trade Rules –or Both

*event will be held in English

The seminar focuses on food security (SDG 2) and examines the global causes of nutritional inequalities. Despite sufficient food production, climate change, corruption, conflicts, and unstable markets lead to hunger and food shortages. A key approach is food sovereignty – the right to shape one's own agricultural and food policies independently of in- ternational trade rules.

To illustrate this, quinoa cultivation in Ecuador can be seen as an example, demonstrating how rising demand can lead to monocultures and negative consequences for growing regions. In contrast, solutions like the "La Via Campesina" initiative promote the independence of small-scale farmers, fair trade, and traditional farming methods. 

The seminar invites participants to reflect on their responsibilities as consumers. Topics such as foodwaste in the Global North, post-harvest losses in the Global South, and resilient agricultural methods to increase productivity while preserving ecosystems will be the focus of discussions.

Seminar "Mental Health - How to get over the trauma?" (SDG 3) englischsprachig

While the concept of mental health is gaining in public awareness in countries of the Global North, it is often not clear and associated with shame in countries of the Global South, often in countries with poverty and war. This reflects the contrast between fundamentalist understandings of religion and scientific approaches. The seminar provides an insight into the programmes offered (by the university and institutes, e.g. on the experience of flight) and addresses the issue of help. The meanings and possibilities of how healers, religion etc. are used as resources in different parts of the world are also discussed here.