Lead-Safe Certified Firm Logo and Certificate: How to Prove You Are Certified

Where do I get the Lead-Safe Certified Firm logo?

The EPA issues the logo to your firm only after your firm certification is approved. You do not download it from a public page, and you cannot copy the one on another contractor's truck. The EPA emails the logo files to the address listed on your firm certification application, and the version you are authorized to use must display your own firm certification number.

If you filed through LeadSafeFiling.com, we deliver your certificate and your Lead-Safe Certified Firm logo by email once the certification issues, so you do not have to chase down EPA correspondence. If you were certified directly and cannot find the logo email, check the inbox tied to the application and the spam folder, then request a replacement through the issuing authority.

One point that trips up new firms: the logo is tied to firm certification, which is the business credential. It is separate from the individual Certified Renovator credential, which a worker earns by completing a separate accredited eight-hour course. The logo proves the firm is certified, not that any one person took the class.

How do I use the logo correctly and stay compliant?

The EPA publishes logo use guidelines, and the rules are specific. Using the logo incorrectly, or using it before you are certified, is itself a violation. Follow these requirements every time you place it.

• Always include your firm certification number with the logo (it looks like NAT-12345-1). A logo without your number is not valid proof.
• Keep every component legible, and do not alter, recolor, or distort it. The official colors are Pantone 362C (green) and Pantone 660C (blue), and the font is Helvetica. Color and black-and-white versions are both allowed.
• Do not reduce it below the minimum size of one inch wide by 0.687 inches tall.
• Never use it in a way that implies the EPA endorses your company, products, or services. It identifies you as certified, nothing more.
• Only a certified firm may use its own logo. Do not let an uncertified subcontractor use yours, and do not use another firm's logo.
• Place it on the materials the EPA names: brochures, advertisements, websites, proposals, bills, signs, uniforms, and vehicles.

Where can I find my firm certification number?

Your firm certification number is printed on the certificate the issuing authority gives you when your application is approved, and it is the same number that must appear with your logo. For EPA-administered states the certificate is issued through the EPA system and delivered as a PDF, so the number is on that PDF. EPA firm numbers follow the format NAT-12345-1.

If you filed with us, the number is on the certificate we email you. If you were certified directly and misplaced the document, you can look your firm up in the EPA's public certified-firm search tool, or request a certificate replacement through the issuing authority. The state-run programs (North Carolina, Wisconsin, Delaware, and Washington) issue their own certificates with their own numbers.

Keep the number somewhere you can reach it fast. You will be asked for it on bid forms, permit applications, and insurance paperwork, and any time a general contractor vets your firm before adding you to a job.

How do I prove my firm is RRP certified for a bid or permit?

For a bid or permit, the certificate is your proof, not the logo. The logo is for marketing and the required ad disclosure. When a general contractor, owner, or building department asks you to document certification, send the certificate PDF and your firm certification number, and point them to the EPA search tool if they want to confirm it independently.

General contractors increasingly require subcontractors to be certified in their own right. Under the RRP Rule, a firm that performs covered renovation work must be certified, and supplying a Certified Renovator does not make an uncertified subcontractor compliant. That is why GCs collect your firm certificate before they let you on a pre-1978 job.

Common places you will be asked to show proof:

• Subcontractor prequalification packages for general contractors
• Building permit applications for work in pre-1978 housing or child-occupied facilities
• Insurance and bonding applications and renewals
• Property manager and housing-authority vendor onboarding
• Bid responses that require license and certification documentation

Do I have to put the lead-safe logo on my advertising?

Two things matter here. First, the foundational rule: a firm must be certified before it advertises for or performs regulated renovation, repair, or painting. You cannot legally market regulated work as an uncertified firm and plan to get certified later. Get certified first.

Second, once you are certified you are expected to identify your firm as certified in the materials you use to promote regulated work, and the Lead-Safe Certified Firm logo (with your number) is the EPA-sanctioned way to do it. Putting the logo on your ads, website, proposals, and signage signals compliance to customers, GCs, and inspectors, and it doubles as marketing that wins jobs from owners who know to look for it.

This applies to the same work the RRP Rule covers: firms paid to perform renovation, repair, or painting that disturbs more than six square feet of interior paint, or more than twenty square feet of exterior paint, or that affects windows, in housing or child-occupied facilities built before 1978. The rule sits under the federal Toxic Substances Control Act, and federal penalties can reach up to $37,500 per violation, per day.

How do customers verify a certified firm?

Anyone can confirm your certification independently, which is exactly why displaying real proof matters. The EPA maintains a public certified-firm search where owners, GCs, and inspectors can look up a firm and confirm it is certified. They can also call the National Lead Information Center at 1-800-424-LEAD for help locating or confirming a certified firm.

Because verification is public, an uncertified firm using the logo or claiming certification is easy to catch. The EPA monitors logo use and accepts reports of misuse at the same 1-800-424-LEAD number. The safe path is simple: be certified, display your real certification number, and let anyone check it.

If you want customers to find and trust you, make it effortless. Show the logo with your number on your site and proposals, and keep your certificate PDF ready to send. A firm that documents proof without being asked closes more pre-1978 work than one that does not.

Not certified yet? Here is how to get your logo and certificate

If you do not have a certificate or a logo, you are not certified, and the fix is to file. LeadSafeFiling.com prepares and files your EPA or state Lead-Safe firm certification for you, then delivers your certificate and your Lead-Safe Certified Firm logo by email so you have proof in hand.

Pricing is a flat $129 service fee plus the government filing fee. All-in totals are $429 for EPA-administered states, $429 in North Carolina, $429 in Delaware, $154 in Washington, and $379 in Wisconsin. No Social Security number is ever required. Validity depends on the program: EPA certification lasts five years, North Carolina renews annually, Wisconsin lasts four years, and Delaware and Washington last up to five years.

Select your state and start your filing at LeadSafeFiling.com, and you can have your certificate and logo in about one to two weeks, ready for your next bid, permit, or ad.