Use of the EMAS Logo
The organization that uses the logo must exercise control over the way it is presented and take responsibility for it.
There must be a clearly identifiable link between the logo and the activity, the product and the service to which it refers.
As already mentioned, it is not the technical method of presenting the logo itself that determines whether its use is permitted or not, but the content of the information provided.
In any case, it is essential to specify unambiguously what information the organization refers to.
a) Information concerning the product, activity or service indirectly:
in the advertising message relevant validated information must be presented, which can be identified as information relating to specific validated characteristics of the organization's environmental management, if the logo (second version) is used to indicate:
- the performance of the production processes involved;
- the characteristics of the organization's environmental management;
- environmental policies, objectives and goals;
- general data relating to environmental performance.
Statements relating to environmental aspects that are not sufficiently treated by the organization's environmental management are not permitted.
b) Information concerning the product, activity or service directly:
the advertising message must contain relevant validated information, which must be identifiable as information relating to specific validated characteristics of the organization's environmental management, such as
- characteristics of the product, activity or service with environmental relevance;
- characteristics of the product during or after use;
- improvements in the environmental performance of products or services;
- environmental policies, objectives and purposes relating to a product or service;
- data relating to the environmental performances that characterize a product, an activity or a service.
Statements relating to environmental aspects that are not sufficiently treated by the organization's environmental management are not permitted.
When using the logo, you must comply with three major limitations: it is not allowed to use the logo
- on products and their packaging;
- in association with comparative claims relating to products, activities and services of competitors;
- in advertising of products, without an indication or precise information of the characteristics of the organization or of the product itself to which they refer.
Therefore, the EMAS logo itself does not provide information to the consumer (such as ecological labeling) but indicates that the information provided has been validated.
In other words, it constitutes a "certificate of information reliability" and not a "certificate of superior product quality".
Furthermore, in all cases in which an eco-labeling system is operational for the product, activity or service in question (ie where the requirements for ecological labeling systems are established at national or EU level) the following are applicable requirements:
- the organization and the verifier have the obligation to adopt, as established in the general principles mentioned above and illustrated by the examples, the specific measures necessary to avoid confusion with the existing ecological label;
- in checking the compliance of the information to be provided with the requirements set out in Annex III, point 3.5, letters a) to f), the organizations and the verifiers must take into consideration the criteria for the ecological labeling of the product;
- all the eco-labeling systems applicable to the market on which the logo will be used must be taken into consideration;
- under no circumstances is it allowed to refer to the criteria established for the ecological labeling in question.
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