About the Forest Stewardship Council
The Forest Stewardship Council is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's forests, chiefly through forest certification and product labeling standards. More than 90 million hectares of forests in 70 countries have been certified under the FSC standards.

Visit the United States FSC website for more information, including a searchable database of certified suppliers. The international FSC website also has good resources, especially if you are looking for technical information on the various standards. Here are some links to frequently asked questions:

• What is chain of custody certification?

• Chain of Custody certification Fact Sheet (PDF)

• Buying FSC certified paper and FSC's backgrounder fact sheet (PDF)

FSC On-Product Label General Requirements
On-product FSC labels, like what you would have on your printing project, must meet strict graphical size, color and placement rules and must be approved by the printing supplier's certifier prior to going to press. The actual language/claim on your label will depend of the paper you purchased. But all

labels generally must meet these requirements:

• Must include the printing company's registration code. This can be placed directly under the FSC logo or in parenthesis after the copyright claim.

• The following copyright claim must be included: "FSC Trademark © 1996 Forest Stewardship Council A.C."

• The logo, whether landscape or portrait, must meet the minimum size requirement - 19 mm across for portrait labels, 11 mm high for landscape labels.

• The logo is in an approved color and contrast.

• The "clear zone" is met, an area of white space around the logo itself that is calculated by using twice the height of the FSC wordmark.

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Concord Litho is a Forest Stewardship Council chain of custody certified printing supplier (SCS-COC-001191). This means we can offer our customers the option of printing on FSC-certified paper from well-managed forests, and, if you select this option, you may display the FSC product label on your printed piece as a symbol of your commitment to the environment and sound forestry practices.

FSC certified papers come from well-managed forests and controlled sources, and the chain of custody system ensures that FSC paper can be traced from the originating forest, to the loggers, to the paper mills, to the printing facility where it is used for your project. This tracking is done through the exchange of certification codes and paperwork; everyone who touches the paper along the way must be chain of custody FSC certified. And for a printed piece to display any FSC trademark (the logo, the initials FSC or the phrase 'Forest Stewardship Council'), the printing company absolutely must have chain of custody certification. 

Concord Litho has successfully produced several eco-friendly projects using FSC certified paper, from newsletters for Prudential Financial to large-format POP signage for Macy's department stores to gift wrap and greeting cards for the World Wildlife Fund.

Want your next job to carry the Forest Stewardship Council logo / label? Here's how the process works at Concord Litho:

• Ask your Concord Litho sales rep to run your next job FSC.

• We can help you select FSC-certified papers that will meet your needs; more and more FSC papers are becoming available every quarter.

• When designing your project, be sure to leave room for the FSC logo, which we will place in your file for you. It is a requirement of our certification that we place the appropriate FSC logo with our certification code directly in your file. Your account manager will provide you an FSC Product Label Selection Worksheet of available logo dimensions, orientations and colors to choose from. We can also provide you an FPO image to use as a placeholder.

• You will receive a PDF soft proof to show you the FSC logo in place. A copy of this same proof and additional paper tracking information will be sent for approval to our FSC certifier, who will verify that the correct FSC claim label is being used for your project, that the logo standards are met, and that our tracking of the paper is in order. This approval process typically takes less than a day. Once approved, your files will be released for plating, subject of course to your proof approval.

• Once your project is printed it will be packed and labeled as FSC certified material. Your invoice will carry a special denotation that your project was printed on FSC certified paper as well.

What do the FSC labels look like + what are the differences?

if you are considering using FSC certified paper for an upcoming job at Concord Litho, talk with your sales rep about additional resources we have available for you -- including our Going Green Idea Kit. But here are a few general rules:

• The actual language/claim on your FSC label will depend of the paper you purchase. We will let you know which label matches your FSC paper.The most common claim is "Mixed Sources." If your FSC paper also has post-consumer recycled content, you have the option of using a label that highlights the recycled percentage.

• The logos come in two orientations, portrait and landscape.

• The logos come in four color/contrast variations (positive/green, positive/black+white, negative/green, negative/black+ white).