Carnival Corporation’s sustainability journey is about more than just caring for the seas it sails on – which we learned about in the first half of this mini-documentary. The company is serious about safety, and has invested around €75m in a brand new facility to improve staff training. It’s also keen to improve the social impact the brand can have in the 700 ports it visits, and make sure it’s providing a positive working environment for its employees.

Karina Spiegel: Well, the safety of our guests and crew is extremely important. Because they’re out at sea the majority of the time, so we are continuously learning and sharing best occupational health and safety practices to continue to make sure that our guests have a safe experience, and our crew is safe.

The New Economy: Carnival Corporation’s sustainability journey is about more than just caring for the seas it sails on. The company is serious about safety, and has invested around €75m in a brand new facility.

Bill Burke: The Arison Centre is a combination of a hotel and a training centre, named after our founder and his son, our current chairman Mickey.

We opened it in July of last year. It gives us four full mission bridge simulators, four engine control room simulators, plus pieces of the engine room, briefing rooms, debriefing rooms. Gives us the opportunity to do environmental officer training, to do hands-on training on breakers and electrical safety. So it allows us to put you in challenging situations that you might not see otherwise. In a centre where you can hit the reset button and start over again if it’s not going well, or you can stop it and say: what are you thinking about right now? Why are you doing this, why are you doing that? It really enhances the learning.

It’s definitely important for us, because we want to raise the standard of what we’re doing at sea. We need to be able to operate our ships in a safe manner, and that’s fundamental to sustainability.

We also want our officers to know we’re investing in them. And from an officer perspective, I think they all want to be as good as they can be. And this gives them an opportunity to do that.

The New Economy: Carnival’s third sustainability focus is its social and labour performance.

Karina Spiegel: On labour and social we have three goals. We have a community goal focused on partnerships and initiatives to support the communities that we visit. We also have a business partner code of conduct and ethics goal, about bringing our expectations to the supply chain, so that our vendors understand our expectations of them.

Then we also have a diversity and ethics goal, which is focused on our employees, to provide a positive work environment and opportunities for them to build their career.

Elaine Heldewier: The social and the labour component is extremely important because the ships are not just steel. It’s the people that make the operation. And socially – because we go to so many different places around the world. Annually we basically cover more than 700 different ports worldwide, it’s important for us to know those places and develop our relationship with them, and see how can we better interact with each other?

The New Economy: Today, sustainability is embedded in all of Carnival’s operations. It’s simply part of its ethos; and it’s how we should all be doing business.

Bill Burke: If we are not sustainable then we won’t be here for a long period of time. And fundamentally, sustainability is about endurance. And you have to take care of the environment, you have to take care of your people, you have to take care of your business to be sustainable.

Karina Spiegel: We are focused on our 2020 sustainability goals, but we are thinking now on what are the next steps beyond 2020. After these goals we want to make sure we already have new goals in place. On the environment, as this again is a big part of our business, and a growing part of our concerns. We want to continue our initiatives with the communities, and continue to have a positive work environment for our employees and make sure that also invites new employees in to work with us in the future.

Elaine Heldewier: For us, it’s an ongoing process. It doesn’t have an end. It’s part of the organisation, and every year we look at components of our sustainability; how do I fit in the bigger picture, and how can I minimise my impact as an individual, and as an organisation?

Bill Burke: I still love going to sea on our ships. Being able to see the ocean different everywhere, beautiful everywhere. Sometimes a little ornery. But I think it’s a wonderful way to connect with the world. And we do have to preserve that. And we’re doing our best to do just that.

If you started here, you missed what Carnival’s doing around environmental sustainability – which is pretty important, so go back and watch that now.

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