15 operators comprising more than 1,500 hotels have qualified for MDO Sustainability Certification by verifying a paperless night audit process that saves substantial natural resources.
BETHESDA, MD., February 9, 2023 – In just three months since launching the MDO Sustainability Calculator and Certification, 15 hotel management companies comprising more than 1,500 hotels have qualified, and their collective efforts are saving 743 trees and 134 cubic feet of landfill waste annually.
The MDO Sustainability Certification was launched in November 2022 as a way to shine the spotlight on hotel owners and operators dedicated to reducing their environmental footprint, and its rapid adoption demonstrates the industry’s accelerated action around ESG efforts. Companies such as Crestline Hotels & Resorts, Commonwealth Hotels, Remington Hotels, McNeill Hotel Company, and Apple REIT have received certification. These companies have each adopted a paperless night audit process, which moves critical financial documents into a secure, digital environment for storage and compliance. The process can be directly correlated to significant reduction in tree and forest harvesting.
According to the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance (SHA), to keep pace with the targets outlined in the Paris Agreement, the global hotel industry needs to reduce carbon emissions per room per year by 66% by 2030 and 90% by 2050. Leading hotel companies have aligned themselves with science-based target initiatives (SBTi), which manage emissions reductions and net-zero commitments. Many hotel companies have adopted near-term targets on the path to achieving net zero.
In addition to helping its partners eliminate printing, MDO has a longstanding tradition of planting one tree for every hotel that is currently live on MDO’s myDocs Digital Document Management solution. This year, 2,600 new trees were planted through the National Forest Foundation of Missoula, Montana.
Since MDO began measuring the effects of moving its customer base to digital document management in 2018, the collective impact on the environment has been substantial. As of January 2023, MDO and its customers’ efforts contributed to saving 45,470 trees, 7,653 cubic yards of landfill, and 17,393,592 gallons of wastewater.
“Adopting digital document management alongside MDO is one step we are taking as a company to reduce our impact on the environment, and we’re proud of the measurable results highlighted in MDO’s Sustainability Certification,” said Travis Murray, president at McNeill Hotel Company.
In addition to the sustainability results, calculations show that a company with 10 hotels that adopts a Paperless Night Audit process averages $8,220 in cost savings in the first year. To see what your company could be saving by adopting digital document management, interact with the MDO Sustainability Calculator.
