Schools looking to be more environmentally friendly can learn from our neighbors up north. Canada’s Niagara Catholic School District Board (NCSDB) was recognized this week by IDG’s InfoWorld as a part of the InfoWorld Green 15 Awards. The awards applaud the 15 most innovative IT initiatives that fall under the umbrella of sustainability.
 
NCSDB utilized Xerox’s DocuShare enterprise content management (ECM) software to convert loads of paperwork, such as student records and forms, into easy to manage digital files. The school also merged its existing eSchool Solutions SmartFindExpress application -- which processes substitute teacher requests – with DocuShare to automate leave of absence approvals, substitute teacher scheduling, HR documentation and payroll steps. For example, processing a teacher leave-of-absence request once took three pieces of paper and a lengthy approval process. It's now simply done online in about 30 seconds and approved in minutes.
 
The Board saw many more benefits beyond reducing paper consumption. The HR department alone digitized 800,000 documents and is now entirely digital, and the Board was able to save $38,000 annually by publishing a monthly newsletter online.