Sustainability
We are really passionate about having a positive impact on the planet and its people, and it’s our mission to create a greener, cleaner, safer and more sustainable future for generations to come. This commitment is absolutely central to everything that we do here at Woodblock and here are a few examples of our actions.
We are delighted that Woodblock has received an Ecovardis Gold Medal for its Sustainability Performance. This award places Woodblock among the top 5% of companies globally who have been evaluated by Ecovardis in the last 12 months.
What does this mean?
Woodblock has been through a rigorous assessment process which has evaluated its environmental sustainability, labour, human rights and ethics activity, and the sustainability of its procurement process.
This medal is an endorsement of Woodblocks robust management system, at the heart of which is a huge focus on ESG sustainability. It demonstrates Woodblocks commitment to sustainable practices both within the business and in the supply chain.
Customers can feel assured that they are working with a trusted business partner who is committed to operating in accordance with the highest environmental and ethical standards. This positive affirmation of Woodblocks supply chain in turn positively impacts the supply chain of Woodblocks customers.
Staff are working within a company who has committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment, ensuring a healthy work life balance is achieved and encouraged, and personal development is supported, leading to a happy and fulfilled team.
Woodblock is committed to promoting transparency of its business activities and will continue to strive for excellence as demonstrated by this award.
For more information view our rating…
Certified Carbon Neutral Business
In conjunction with Carbon Neutral Britain we have become a Carbon Neutral Business by measuring our emissions and offsetting these through internationally certified carbon offsetting projects.
In addition, now that we know our carbon footprint, we are taking further action to reduce our future emissions by implementing a comprehensive Carbon Reduction Plan, ensuring that we are on the journey to become Net Zero in the future.
We are super excited to be members of Greenspark, an organisation dedicated to tackling the climate crisis by planting trees, offsetting carbon and rescuing plastic. Through Greenspark we are offsetting carbon emissions of every member of our team with monthly donations to carbon avoidance projects. Even better, for every £250 spent with us we plant a tree.
To learn more about this positive impact, visit our dashboard…
Charity Donations
An element of our sustainability initiatives that we are super proud of the donations of surplus stock to charities. It would be criminal to throw products that don’t quite make quality control but are perfectly functional into landfill. So instead, once we have confirmed with any stakeholders that they are happy for us to do so, we donate them to one of a few charities that we support. These charities include The Amber Foundation which transforms the lives of young adults facing complex problems and offers homeless support. A local charity set up to transport donations to Ukraine. Several local schools and community events.
Our Supply Chain
We are continually looking to source more ethical materials and products and as such all of our suppliers are assessed by Woodblock on a number of criteria, related to both environmental and social responsibility, prior to us partnering with them. This due diligence ensures that we only work with companies whose values and ethical and environmental standards are aligned with ours.
Our Foils
It would be understandable to think the metallic effect on foil meant you couldn’t recycle it, but the good news is that you can! As long as the material that you foil onto is repulpable. Once transferred, foil is so thin that it dissipates within the re-pulping process.
We are proud to be part of FoilCo’s ‘Zero Foil To Landfill’ scheme. Whereby, we send our waste foil back and it is then converted into SRF. SRF is a higher quality and more environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuel(s). Additionally, the foils contain no animal ingredients or animal by-products and they haven’t been tested on animals. They contain no known animal-derived GMOs or genes in the manufacturing process.
Our Products
There is now a fantastic offering of ecologically sound and sustainable promotional merchandise products available and they don’t have to break the bank. As you will have noticed the vast majority of our products have positive eco credentials and we will always do our best to promote these above the less environmentally friendly options. Furthermore, we believe that by working closely with our customers we can ensure that they receive high quality, sensitively made products that will be treasured and not trashed!
At Woodblock, we only buy paper which is FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) approved, and our packaging contains recycled content, is recyclable and is reused where at all possible.
Additionally, our everyday paper supplier has created ‘Woodland Carbon’, a scheme in partnership with The Woodland Trust. In this way, we get the opportunity to capture equivalent amounts of carbon dioxide that are released from the production, storage and distribution of the paper we buy from them. We contribute to the scheme for each tonne of paper we buy, this money then goes to funding the planting of trees.
Our main supplier for our luxury stationery and business card stocks is G.F. Smith. Their commitment to the environment is second to none. As well as being fully recyclable and biodegradable, Colorplan has FSC certification, meaning that the pulps used are all from managed forests (for every tree felled, three are planted). It is also heavy metal free and, because the bleaching process avoids the use of harmful chlorine, it is classified ECF.
In alignment with our responsibility to ensure the sustainability of our paper products we are very proud to stock truly innovative recycled products. Examples include, the Extract range of paper by G.F. Smith. This is made from recycled disposable coffee cups. The Bier range by Gmund which uses 40-60% recycled beer labels, 30-50% totally chlorine free pulp and 5-20% brewer’s grains.