The Forest Trust (TFT) is revamping its identity in the wake of a decision to widen its remits to include non-wood products.
TFT has worked with branding agency Lambie-Nairn to develop a new brand position and identity, which includes the addition of logo strapline to clarify its main focus – “Delivering responsible products”.
TFT director Scott Poynton said having established a strong record of achievement in wood products, TFT was now moving to address social and environmental concerns in a much broader ranger of products, including beef and leather, stone, cotton, palm oil and wool. TFT groups in these product areas will now operate alongside the wood group.
“In the same way that we don’t want bad wood in products, people don’t want bad palm oil, bad soy and bad leather – so many products have a forest footprint and TFT’s model is just as applicable in these other products as it is in wood,” he said.
Mr Poynton said most of the 13 million ha of forest lost every year was mainly down to agricultural commodity expansion.
He also said TFT needed to look beyond FSC certification and consider all the environmental and social issues embedded in wood products. TFT member programme managers will discuss this with members in the coming months.
“It’s one thing to have FSC wood in a product, but if its production has caused environmental and social issues elsewhere, then it’s not really responsible in the broadest sense.”
TFT is now implementing its identity changes in all its communication materials, with a new website to be launched in May.
