The international forest certification organisation Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has announced that it is withdrawing the “Forests For All Forever” (FFAF) trademark from use. FFAF is a well-known green slogan, visually accompanied by images of people and animals. Until now, holders of FSC promotional licences could use the trademark on packaging, in marketing materials and in digital communications. The decision follows the entry into force of the European Union's Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition (EmpCo) directive, which aims to tackle unfounded and vague environmental claims in the consumer market.
Although the directive applies only within the EU, FSC is rolling out these changes worldwide, in order to ensure consistent use of its trademarks across all markets, including outside the European Union.
“The EmpCo directive aims to eliminate any ambiguity in communication with consumers, and we support that goal. Terms like ‘environmentally friendly’, ‘eco’ or ‘climate-neutral’ are too often used without real substance behind them. The slogan ‘Forests For All Forever’ was part of our identity for many years, but under the new legal reality our communication will focus on the certification system itself – on what can genuinely be verified, in real time,” says Agnese Pidrika, FSC's representative in Latvia.
The EmpCo directive will enter into force on 27 September 2026. From that date, holders of FSC promotional licences must fully discontinue use of the FFAF trademark and all its linguistic and graphic variations in any materials – on packaging, in marketing, in digital content and in other forms of communication. Use of the mark is permitted until 31 August 2026.
Changes for holders of FSC certificates and licences:
- the FFAF trademark is being removed from FSC's portfolio for holders of promotional licences – both on product labelling and in promotional materials;
- the website address fsc.org becomes a mandatory element of FSC product labelling, along with an indication of the product type in every case;
- when using FSC trademarks in promotional materials, the address fsc.org will henceforth be mandatory alongside the promotional claim.
These changes do not affect the FSC mark itself or the certification system, which continue to operate in full. Certificate holders who still have stocks of product or promotional materials bearing the previous labelling may continue selling them outside the EU market until stocks are fully used up, provided compliance with standard FSC-STD-50-001 V2-1 is maintained.
“For consumers, this means greater transparency: alongside the FSC mark there will now be a direct hyperlink to a website where they can check exactly what the company has been certified for. This will help reduce greenwashing. We believe trust should be based not on slogans, as before, but on the ability to verify and confirm that trust,” adds the FSC representative.
The full regulatory transition to standard version FSC-STD-50-001 V3 must be completed by all certificate holders no later than January 2029. Until then, the FSC Brand Hub will continue to provide access to the FFAF mark for certificate holders still operating under standard version V2-1, although its use in the EU market is not permitted from 27 September 2026.
About FSC
Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC) is an international organisation that develops standards for responsible forest management. Worldwide, FSC has certified more than 160 million hectares of forest and thousands of woodworking, pulp and trading companies. FSC helps countries and businesses adopt sustainable practices, ensures supply chain transparency, and invests in biodiversity conservation in Europe and around the world.