How the World’s Biggest Cruise Company Approaches Sustainability
Photo Credit: Cruise lines, for all their talk about improving sustainability, encounter systemic challenges to reducing their impact on the environment. Carnival Inspiration is pictured here, along with some California wildlife. Flickr / greg lilly
Skift Take
It's nice to see an industry-leading company take a forward-looking approach to sustainability, both in terms of the environment and its effect on destinations around the world. For the time being, cruise ships are still big polluters.
Big-ship cruising, by virtue of its very nature, is not the most environmentally friendly way to vacation.
In addition to the airborne pollution created by the engines of a cruise ship, there is the matter of disposing of a variety of waste created by crew and passengers. When a cruise line operates dozens of vessels visiting hundreds of ports each year, managing sustainability is a major challenge.
The world's biggest cruise companies, however, have become more active in reporting on their sustainability efforts and setting goals to decrease the environmental impact.
Carnival Corp. this month released its 2015 sustainability report, showing progress toward the company's stated goal of incremental sustainability improvements by 2020.
The report gives an update on the company's most ambitious sustainability initiative, which involves switching to liquid natural gas as fuel for a new generation of Carnival ships that will be more energy efficient and emit less greenhouse
