The Vancouver School Board has firmly planted itself to follow a new, ecological-friendly precedent with regards to paper consumption.

Beginning on January 1 of 2011, the Board had switched paper suppliers, and with the resulting communications, schools were directed to order recycled-content paper. One year later, that change has had a big impact compared to the previous year's reporting volumes.

In 2010, only 23% of the total fine paper (also known as copy paper) used by the VSB had recycled content. These numbers have now almost been reversed as in the 2011 calendar year 78% of fine paper used had 30% or more recycled content.

In both years an almost identical purchase volume of 58,000,000 sheets of paper was accumulated.

Ian Wind, Manager of Purchasing & Administrative Services says he is proud of this shift towards a green mentality, but would like to continue to reduce paper consumption volumes.

"It's great to see that recyclable paper is becoming more abundant in VSB offices, but another crucial component of being environmentally friendly is to reduce. We have been able to supplant our paper source, but through suppressing our paper consumption we can ensure that we are taking steps towards a greener workplace."