WOODBLOCK
WOODBLOCK
Woodblock

WOODBLOCK TALKS RESPONSIBILITY


It is everywhere around us: The topic of our responsibility as humans environmentally, socially and economically.

We thought for a while now about a suitable form to contribute to this topic, and what we came up with is a simple combination of our thoughts and beliefs, our current state of affairs, and our outlook on the future.

 

WE’RE AWARE - AND FAR FROM PERFECT


We are mindful of our company’s impact on the world around us. With a critical eye, but also motivated to adjust and transform. Please take a glimpse into our process, ideas, and efforts to increase responsible life.

With life, we mean externally on the one hand- as in the influence we have on our environment and our social and ethical responsibility in society. We are aware and self-reflecting on the impact we're having, as a company. Our responsibility is to reduce our carbon footprint, support or reject projects based on ethical grounds and promote and shape new industry processes that are rooted in long-term success for everyone instead of instant gains or endless growth.

But we also mean internally, through a constant strive towards improving the happiness of our staff and building up a communal effort to help raise our sustainability rating. By means of education and encouragement, we implement actions and rule sets that help reduce our carbon footprint and usage of finite material resources. And by providing financial incentives to our staff when choosing low-impact forms of transportation.

Woodblock

WE’RE WORKING ON IT - STATE OF CURRENT ACTIONS


TRAVELLING

Woodblock financially supports the following means of transportation for our staff:

  • Short distance public transport
  • Long distance train rides

If car rentals are required, we're supporting electric vehicles by approved partners.

Furthermore, Woodblock always encourages our staff to be active themselves and use bikes and walking, if possible.


AWARENESS

Woodblock educates and encourages low-impact behavior inside the studio by:

  • Reducing single-use containers
  • Reducing delivery of food orders and encourage staff to use lunchtime as a real break, step outside and reset / disconnect from the work space.
  • Reducing trash production, in any way possible by encouraging a mindful consumption behavior of our staff members.
  • Reducing electricity usage by implementing an auto log-off system.


LOCAL VS. GLOBAL

Woodblock cuts down on long supply chains. We do this by:

  • Encouraging staff members to buy locally, eat locally and avoid food deliveries
  • Reduce online shopping deliveries to the office space and simultaneously support local businesses and shops


HAPPINESS

Woodblocks ways of hospitality:

  • At our headquarter, we provide breakfast, lunch and after-work snacks on three days of the week. These meals are cooked and prepared internally. We only use regional, local and fair trade produce and fruit. Everything is seasonal, organic and 100% vegetarian.
  • We have a 'no weekend work' policy. Requests for weekend work are not part of our human resource planning as we think that happy artists produce the best work. We know that there will always be exceptions we can not control, but Woodblocks opinion is that this can never be the norm and we push to keep these to an absolute minimum.


ETHICS

Woodblock is implementing an internal voting system for projects that might violate our ethical standards or come from sources that negatively impact the environment and society.

Woodblock

WE’RE PLANNING AHEAD - FUTURE MILESTONES


SHORT TERM 06/2023

  • Reduce the total number of deliveries supplying our office to 10% of the deliveries in 2021.
  • Provide 100% organic, local, and fair-trade refreshments.
  • Zero food waste
  • Reduce unnecessary energy consumption for electronic devices, screens and monitors.
  • Enact a voting system for potential new projects that might be questionable.


MID TERM 12/2025

  • Finance public transport and train rides for staff.
  • Zero single-use plastic at the office.
  • Establish a staff composition that is at least 50% non-male, maintaining payment parity across all genders.


LONG TERM 06/2027

  • Implement a 4-day work week with full week salary.
  • Offer a company wide retirement plan for permanent full-time positions.
  • Appoint non-male managing directors to at least 2/3 of the management positions.



Woodblock

CONCLUSION


This concludes Woodblock's first responsibility mission statement. Woodblock’s commitment to change as an animation studio is an evolving story. From the moment we put down our pipedreams into words, it’s sparked many debates and actions. It will hopefully continue to do so. With the act of going public with this story, these goals we set for ourselves are metamorphosing into something tangible. It’s our call to action, for ourselves and for everyone around us.