The 2012 Lush Prize Awards

Abstract

The Lush Prize awards represent a collaboration between Lush Cosmetics and Ethical Con sumer Research Association (Ethical Consumer). Lush is a campaigning manufacturer and retailer of fresh handmade cosmetics, with shops in 49 countries. The Ethical Consumer is a UK-based research and consultancy co-operative, focused on working with companies and consumers around effective ethical choices. The awards were the brainchild of Mark Constantine, founder of Lush Cosmetics. They were borne out of his frustration in feeling that, despite spending years campaigning against animal testing, with the introduction of the REACH legislation 1 — which requires chemical manufacturers to further safety test raw materials and leading to increased animal testing — rather than progress being made, things were actually moving in the wrong direction. Feeling demoralised, hitting his 60th birthday, and worrying that he would not see change in his lifetime, Mark set about thinking of how Lush could use its influence as a company to best make an impact in the area in some way. At Ethical Consumer, another idea — that of creating a fund which other companies opposed to animal testing could contribute to, specifically to provide funding for scientists to look at the issue of animal testing of cosmetics — had already been given careful scrutiny. So when Mark approached Ethical Consumer with the suggestion of creating some kind of prize instead, to encourage scientists to focus on making breakthroughs in the area of toxicity testing, we were already qualified and keen to take a look. After some further research and thought, the Lush Prize was born — and both Lush and Ethical Consumer have never looked back. The Lush Prize is managed on a day-to-day basis by Ethical Consumer in Manchester, and is overseen by a five-person committee, the Lush Prize Team, comprising Karl Bygrave, Hilary Jones and Tamsin Omond (all from Lush), and Katy Brown and Rob Harrison (both from Ethical Consumer).