– Communication guidance
How to use the TCO Certified brand and logo
This guide helps you ensure consistent, clear and accurate communication of what the TCO Certified brand stands for. Please refer to this guide as well as your agreement with TCO Development for full details about accurate product labeling and certification naming.
How to describe your certified products
Use these texts when you want to explain TCO Certified in marketing material.
TCO Certified is a global sustainability certification for IT products. [Brand Name] uses TCO Certified to manage environmental and social risk connected to IT products.TCO Certified includes a comprehensive system of up-to-date criteria, independent verification and a structured system for continuous improvement to drive real and lasting change.
[Brand Name] offers products that are certified according to TCO Certified. These product models meet a wide scope of sustainability criteria, covering both environmental and social responsibility in the supply chain and throughout the product life cycle. Criteria areas include hazardous substances, circularity, socially responsible manufacturing, environmentally responsible manufacturing, and much more.
All criteria are mandatory, which means that the certified product must meet all criteria for its product category in TCO Certified. Compliance with all criteria is independently verified by accredited experts. Verification is mandatory and continuous and carried out both before and after certification, throughout the certificate’s validity period.
When you describe the certified product
- This product is certified according to TCO Certified
- This product carries the TCO Certified designation
When you describe why you use TCO Certified
- We use TCO Certified to manage environmental and social risk connected to IT products
- We use TCO Certified to meet key sustainability goals
- We contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals by using TCO Certified in purchasing
When you describe the criteria
The comprehensive criteria cover both environmental and social responsibility in the supply chain and throughout the product life cycle. Criteria areas include:
- Product and sustainability information
- Socially responsible manufacturing
- Environmentally responsible manufacturing
- User health and safety
- Product performance
- Product lifetime extension
- Reduction of hazardous substances
- Material recovery
Correct terminology
When mentioning or describing TCO Certified, correct use of the brand is important to maintaining accuracy and consistency. Below you’ll find acceptable and non-acceptable claims when speaking about TCO Certified.
TCO Certified is the name of the brand
The brand name TCO Certified must be used in its entirety.
TCO Certified, not TCO
The brand name TCO Certified must be used in its entirety.
TCO Certified is a product certification, not a label or award
Products, not brands, are certified
Naming TCO Certified
This is how you write the full name, including generation number.
Logos
Our logos may be reproduced using original designs and colors only. Correct proportions must be maintained.
Logos may be used for editorial purposes. For non editorial use, please contact us with your request. Maintaining clear space between the logo and other graphic elements such as type, images, other logos, etc. ensures that the logo always appears unobstructed and distinctly separate from any other graphic elements.
Logo guidance for brands with certified products
The logo must be reproduced in a quality that allows the text to be read under normal viewing circumstances and may only be used in connection with certified product models. Use of the TCO Certified brand is governed by the contract between the brand owner and TCO Development.
1. The TCO Certified logo* must be visible on the certified product in one of the following ways:
Alternative A
On a permanent or temporary label. Temporary labels must be affixed to the product with an adhesive or cling-type application.
- The logo must be visible on the top or front of the product. (The front of the product is defined as the surface seen when viewing the product from the front and may include the stand. The top is defined as the surface that is seen from the top and the back is the surface that is seen from the back.)
- The minimum size of the logo is 16mm in width and 10mm in height.
- If the logo is to be placed alongside other logos or graphic elements, a minimum of 2,5mm padding must be used on all sides of the TCO Certified logo.
Exception
If the top and front of the product don’t have a contiguous and coplanar area (area used for display or touch input are excluded) which is at least 16mm in width or 10mm in height, then the logo may be placed on the reverse/backside of the product.
Alternative B
Via electronic labeling displayed on the screen in one of the below ways:
- During the startup of the product:
The logo must cover at least 1% of the screen but the text “certified” in the logo must be legible. The logo must be in color, black, or white and must automatically (without the need of interaction) appear at system start-up, and must be displayed for a minimum of 0,5 seconds. - Via a shortcut on the desktop screen of the product.
The shortcut must have an icon in the form of the TCO Certified logo in color and it shall link to “the information document
for end-users” which may be published on the brand owner’s homepage. The document is available at tcocertified.com. - TCO Certified logo as a part of the product picture
The TCO Certified logo is shown on the first product picture where the product is marketed on the brand owners web site. In the product specification on this page, TCO Certified is also listed with a link to the “information to end-user document” which is the document required under mandate 1.1 point 1.
2. The retail packaging of the product must be labeled with the TCO Certified logo*
- The minimum size of the logo must be 16mm in width, and 10mm in height.
- If the logo is to be placed alongside other logos or graphic elements, a minimum of 2,5mm padding must be used on all sides of the TCO Certified logo.
* The TCO Certified Edge logo may be used as an alternative to the TCO Certified logo if the product has a valid TCO Certified Edge certificate.
