Revision of the Fair for Life

Social & Fair Trade Scheme

As any other standard, the Fair for Life Scheme is regularly updated and revised to account for new developments in the social and fair trade sector and to ensure continuous improvement of the scheme.

Please download the Fair For Life and For Life Revision Procedure for further information on the revision procedure and the involved bodies.

After the scheme’s introduction in 2006, different revisions were undertaken:

Click here to have an overview of the 2010 major revision

Click here to have an overview of the 2013 minor revision

In March 2016, the Fair for Life Scheme has started the process of a particularly important revision. This process has led to the launch of the revised standard in February 2017.

Revision 2017: Context

During the past years, there has been close cooperation, including mutual recognition, between Fair for Life and ESR (ECOCERT’s social and fair trade scheme). This cooperation has been further strengthened since the acquisition of IMO by ECOCERT in 2013. Since then, the two Social & Fair Trade schemes have coexisted within the ECOCERT group. The 2017 revision of the Fair for Life Scheme will:

Ensure that the revised version of the Fair for Life Scheme represents a continuation of the current scheme, while at the same time taking the best of both standards; Fair for Life and ESR.
Be an opportunity to review the structure of the scheme with the aim of improving its clarity and readability as well as the standard requirements.

Revision 2017: Timelines and procedures
As during past revisions, the 2017 revision process has been carried out considering the principles of the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards (Version 6.0 – December 2014), i.e. the process has been transparent and has allowed all stakeholders to participate.

Key steps of the revision process

Revision 2017: Where do we stand?
Step 1
The pre-consultation phase is now over. Click here to read a summary of the lively and enriching exchanges that happened during this phase!

Step 2
We have recently launched a call for application: “Fair for Life and For Life Scheme Committee”. This Scheme Committee will hold its inaugural meeting in September. It will give technical advice in order to finalize the first draft of the revised standard, before the public consultation is held (step 3).

Step 3
A first version of the revised For Life / Fair for Life offer is complete and open for public and formal consultation. This is a large milestone that was made possible through the comments made in the pre-consultation phase and through constructive exchanges of the scheme committee members.

At this stage, we invite you to read the revised standard and familiarize yourself with the new structure and modifications by clicking on the below links:

In order to help you familiarize yourself with those revised standards, here is a summary of the main changes applied:

Step 4
The public consultation phase is now over. We invite you to get to know a summary of the lively and enriching exchanges that happened during this phase!

Step 5
The final version of the revision has been published in February 2017. The official launch took place at Biofach in Nuremberg (Germany).
Please have a look at the actual version of the standards and additional materials by clicking on the links below for:

Social Responsibility & Fair Trade

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Social responsibility Fairtrade Certification Standard Third party inspection CSR Smallholder groups Fair trade premium Domestic trade Environment Working conditions Social company Fair product Living wage Ethical production Fair for Life For Life

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