When acceptance letters start rolling in this January, parents and newly named post-secondary students will stop worrying about admission and start thinking about the stresses that come with moving away for school.
   It may not be the first challenge that comes to mind, but for many students finding and moving furniture becomes a burden throughout their university career.
Two former local students have come up with a business plan to address that very dilemma, in a economical and environmentally friendly fashion.
   “We tried to find a need and design a product based on that,” said Christopher Porteous, 24, co-founder of Our Paper Life.
   The business offers lightweight and inexpensive shelves and desks, made locally from 95% recycled corrugated cardboard.
   Co-founder Geoff Christou, 24, an architecture graduate from University of Waterloo, designed the furniture.
   “One thing we were trying to do when we created the product was think about all aspects of the environmental process,” said Porteous, adding that they sought out a local manufacturer to make the products to minimize the impact of transportation.
   Now the furniture is made in Burlington before being shipped to the Mississauga warehouse.
   Shipped in a flat-pack, both the shelf and desk weigh less than nine pounds, but can support up to 65 pounds, and are easy to assemble. They also both cost less than $20 each.
   The company launched in September and met with immediate success, largely through marketing in social media. Porteous said they’ve sold furniture to every province and most U.S. states, and are now expanding into Mexico and Brazil.
   “Initially when we started the business we wanted to focus in Kitchener-Waterloo because of our ties to the city,” he said, but they expanded their focus once requests came in from across North America.
   “The business kind of took a different direction than we expected, but we think it’s worked out for the better.”
   On top of expanding geographically, Our Paper Life is hoping to add new options to its line of furniture.
   “We are working on more complicated products as well right now, such as a bed and a couch,” said Porteous.
   While products can currently be purchased online at www.ourpaperlife.com, Porteous said they’ve had a lot of interest from retailers and will look at moving into stores this year.