Eco LABEL Prioritizes Sustainable Forest Management Practices

Deforestation has a huge impact on the environment - at the current rate of deforestation, the world's rainforests may disappear within the next hundred years. Millions of species are at risk of losing their habitat, as 80% of land animals and plants live in forests. 

Moreover, this lack of trees will contribute to serious temperature changes, as trees play a vital role in regulating the forest climate by blocking sunlight during the day and maintaining heat at night.

NGOs such as Greenpeace, WWF and Client Earth have raised awareness of deforestation and positioned it as an important issue for consumers to consider. In parallel, many large companies have established zero deforestation commitments, whether through forest conservation initiatives or voluntary commitments. These public-private partnerships promote sustainable forestry practices and set guidelines for sustainable sourcing, verification and transparency of company policy and objectives, as in the Consumer Goods Forum.

Recognizing that forests are the mainstay of their livelihoods, a growing number of companies from the paper and pulp industry have made commitments to reduce their impact on forests. Despite these efforts, the industry is under increasing pressure from NGOs to further address this environmental hotspot. ECO LABEL has contributed to support this war with sustainable forest management requirements for paper-based products for many years, with the adoption of copy and graphic paper criteria.

Paper-based product categories make up more than 25% of all ECO LABEL products on the market and include five categories: recycled paper, newspaper printing, printed paper, photocopy and graph paper, and tissue paper. These criteria place stringent requirements on emissions to water and air, as well as energy used during production processes. Sourcing is also an area of ​​high importance to ECO LABEL and cooperates with certifications that guarantee sustainable resource use such as FSC or PEFC.

ECO LABEL Applicants can use PEFC or FSC certification or similar independent third-party certification programs to verify that their virgin fiber comes from sustainably managed forests.

Tools such as ECO LABEL for paper products and private sector efforts represent a step towards sustainable management of forests.