We all live on this planet and want to leave a healthy environment to the generations after us.

At GreatArt we want to make it easy to see what actually lies behind the materials you buy.

Many of our customers want to know where materials come from and how they are made.

Below is what we can evidence – certification, packaging, and figures from our distribution centre.



How to tell that a product is certified

We only label products that carry a recognised certification from an independent third party. We do not invent marks of our own, and we do not call a product green on the strength of our own assessment.

The green leaf on the product page means the product holds at least one of these environmental certifications:

  • FSC® – paper, board, wood, pencils and stretcher bars
  • Nordic Swan Ecolabel – paper, print and chemical products
  • Blue Angel – pens and pencils (DE-UZ 200), and recycled paper
  • EU Ecolabel – graphic paper, and paints and varnishes
  • PEFC – the forest scheme several of our suppliers hold instead of FSC®
  • GOTS – organic cotton, including in canvas
  • GRS and RCS – verified recycled content
  • Cradle to Cradle® – a few brands within art materials

The name of the scheme that issued the certification appears beside the leaf. The leaf never appears on its own, so you can always look the criteria up yourself with the organisation that issued it.

Two certifications we show under their own mark and without the green leaf, because they are not about the environment:

  • OEKO-TEX® STANDARD 100 – the textile has been tested for harmful substances. That speaks to health, not to the environment
  • V-Label – the product is vegan, verified by an independent third party. That is about animal welfare


The Gerstaecker group is FSC® certified

The Gerstaecker group has been FSC® certified since April 2021 under licence code FSC-C166398. GreatArt is covered by the group's certificate. The certification is what allows us to offer certified products. It means the wood in those products can be traced back to forests managed to FSC's standards.

FSC® (Forest Stewardship Council®) is an international non-profit organisation that sets standards for forest management and checks, through independent certification bodies, that they are met.

With our suppliers we therefore focus on a chain built on certified forest management. A large part of our range is already FSC® certified, and we are working to increase that share. You can see on the product page whether a product is FSC® certified.

The group is audited annually by an independent certification body, which checks above all the internal traceability of FSC certified materials (purchasing, storage, any processing, sale, labelling and so on). Read more about FSC® at FSC.org 

You can see it straight away on the product page, so you can always make an informed choice.     


Figures from our distribution centre in Eitorf

The figures below relate to the Gerstaecker group's distribution centre in Eitorf, Germany, from which your order is despatched. They describe the building and its operation – not the individual products. Replacing fluorescent tubes with LED lighting has cut electricity use by more than 30 %, and new insulation has cut heating use by 25 %. Waste is separated and plastic collected apart. A computer-controlled system works out the right box size for each order and has reduced cardboard use by 20 %, without protecting the goods any less well in transit.






Our packaging

The outer boxes and the packing material protecting fragile items inside are made of cardboard and paper, and can be put out for recycling as cardboard and paper. The wrapping paper can be recycled the same way – and plenty of our customers draw and sketch on it. We make the packing cushions ourselves from recycled cardboard, on a machine in the distribution centre.








Materials from our suppliers

Some of our suppliers work deliberately on their use of resources. Mabef makes easels from wood grown in FSC® certified forests, and Clairefontaine makes paper from wood grown in FSC® certified forests. Clairefontaine also states that it selects printing inks, adhesives and finishes so the paper can be recycled, and that it generates 80 % of the energy its mill uses. This information comes from the manufacturers.








The group's own brands

The Gerstaecker group develops and manufactures its own goods under the Gerstaecker, I LOVE ART and Artist Junior brands. The wood for the stretcher frames comes from FSC® certified forests. Gerstaecker No. 5 paper is made from 100 % recycled paper. The group also develops brush cleaners with biodegradable formulations.