Dateline, Romania. Students of the American International School of Bucharest (AISB) conducted a service-learning project to reduce the volume of paper the school consumes, and ultimately, reduce the school’s carbon impact. What they got was a grassroots initiative to make AISB the first paperless school in Romania.

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This article on Xerox’s Enterprise Matters blog explains how the students worked with the school’s IT manager. Everybody learned something from the process, including IT manager Johnson Jacob. He learned that the school’s old fleet of printers from several manufacturers created security problems on his IT network.

David Ottaviano, director of the American International School of Bucharest, estimates that in five years, the new technology will help reduce the school’s costs by 20 percent. Learn more in this case study from Xerox.

For a Xeroid like me, what’s not to like about this story?

  • Competitive equipment knocked out. Check.
  • 24 of ‘their’ devices replace by only nine of ours. Check.
  • New technology enables new processes, better security, improved print quality, and help desk calls took a nosedive. Check, check, and check.

Even though the American International School of Bucharest isn’t completely paperless, they have certainly gone ‘less paper.’ So you roll up the cost savings from paper, power consumption, and a few other items, and that alone is justifies AISB’s investment.

Add an important life lesson for the young students who saw their concerns and ideas taken seriously — and brought to completion quickly – and you have a learning experience that will follow them for the rest of their lives.

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