FSC to enhance relevance and understanding of its global brand

The ‘Forests For All Forever’ brand is being streamlined and expanded for more language coverage.
Fsc brandmark with canopy and sky as background
November 17, 2022
Category : General news

Measures to increase consumer understanding of FSC

With more than half of global consumers recognizing and trusting the ’check tree’ logo, the FSC brand has built a strong foundation of awareness over the years. To continue to grow brand value, FSC is taking measures to increase consumer understanding of what the FSC brand stands for. “Forests For All Forever” is central to FSC’s strategy to increase consumer understanding – it is a simple and inspiring way to articulate FSC’s mission. FSC will therefore position “Forests For All Forever” more strongly and clearly in the future.

To achieve that, FSC is taking two key actions:

FSC will double the language footprint of the text-only brandmark.

All brandmarks

FSC has successfully expanded its language support for the text-only brandmark from 7 to 15, ensuring accessibility for even more audiences. In addition to the existing languages (Chinese (Simplified), English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish), FSC now offers brandmark translations in Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese to further promote FSC’s mission in their local languages

FSC will streamline the brandmark variations offered.

To focus on Forests For All Forever more clearly (reflected in the text-only mark), FSC is phasing out the mark with animal silhouettes overtime.

The old FSC logo with animals faded and crossed out, next to the new text only FSC logo

The phase-out is going to be implemented with a revision of the trademark standard (FSC-STD-50-001) which is expected to be introduced in 2025. Until then the brandmark remains available.

This direction supports FSC in its priority to improve brand management practices to increase relevance and understanding of the FSC brand globally. The text-only mark supports improved understanding of FSC and brand recall with consumers.

Use FSC’s logo

We need your help to further promote the FSC vision of sustainable forestry. If you’re interested in showing the world your stand on forest stewardship, learn more about how you can leverage the power of the FSC brand.

Become an FSC licence holder and join forces with the most trusted name in sustainable forestry. 

Learn more→

Frequently Asked Questions

When will FSC stop making the animals silhouette brandmark available for licence holders?

The animals silhouette brandmark will continue to be available via the Marketing Toolkit until its removal from the FSC trademark portfolio is reflected in the revised trademark standard for certificate holders (FSC-STD-50-001) and in the revised trademark use guide for promotional licence holders (PLHs).

When will FSC revise the normative and guidance documents to reflect the removal of the animals silhouette brandmark?

Upon Board approval, the revision of standard FSC-STD-50-001 is expected to start in 2023. A new standard version V3-0  is expected to be introduced  in 2025. The exact date will be confirmed in 2023, at the start of the FSC-STD-50-001 revision process.

A revised version of Trademark Use Guide for promotional licence holders (PLHs) will be introduced together with the new FSC-STD-50-001 V3-0.

After the introduction of the revised requirements, if a licence holder has FSC-labelled products in stock which display the animals silhouette brandmark, is it possible to sell them?

Yes, if the trademark use was approved prior to the change of the FSC requirements (under FSC-STD-50-001 V2-1 or V2-0), the products may be used until the stock is exhausted.

After the introduction of the revised requirements, is it possible for a certificate holder to print an FSC-labelled product which displays the animals silhouette brandmark?

If the trademark use was approved prior to the change of the FSC requirements (under FSC-STD-50-001 V2-1 or V2-0), the products may continue to be printed until the next design change.  At the next product design refresh, the animals silhouettes brandmark would need to be removed from the artwork. This flexible approach intends to avoid costs for certificate holders.

What will FSC do to position “Forests For All Forever” text-only mark more strongly?

“Forests For All Forever” is central to FSC’s strategy to increase consumer understanding and it remains a simple and inspiring way to articulate FSC’s mission. To position “Forests For All Forever” more strongly, FSC is increasing the number of language versions of the text-only brandmark from 7 to 14.