Cruise shipping is the fastest-growing segment of the travel industry. Last year, more than 20 million people took their holiday on a cruise ship. It’s a fantastic way to see several destinations in a single trip; but is it possible to enjoy a cruise holiday without leaving a large carbon footprint? Carnival Corporation, the largest cruise line in the world, says: yes you can. We went to speak to representatives Jim Van Langen and Elaine Heldewier to find about the company’s environmentally friendly solutions.

The New Economy: Jim, let’s start with you: what has Carnival Corporation done to reduce its emissions?

Jim Van Langen: The reduction in the rate of carbon emissions is actually related to the actual quantity of fuel that gets consumed, and the rate at which we consume fuel. And that clearly has an economic impact, as well as an environmental impact.

The way in which we reduce our fuel consumption is by making our ships more efficient.

60 percent of the fuel consumption goes into the movement of the ship through the water. That’s where the energy goes. If you do it slower, you can save fuel, and therefore save money.

The second largest load is the air conditioning. By not running air conditioning systems when they’re not actually required… there are a very wide range of technologies that are being employed on a ship. If we can make those more efficient, then we’re able to reduce our energy footprint, and thereby reduce our carbon emissions footprint.

It’s a win for the environment, and it’s also a win for the company, because we have a more cost-effective solution than burning more expensive, low-sulphur fuel

The New Economy: Tell me about your exhaust gas cleaning technology: what is it, and what does it do?

Jim Van Langen: The exhaust gas cleaning technology that we are applying on our ships uses a proprietary technology to remove the oxides of sulphur that come from combustion of fuel that has sulphur in it.

It’s a win for the environment, and it’s also a win for the company, because we have a more cost-effective solution than burning more expensive, low-sulphur fuel.

It is pioneering the use of this technology on cruise ships, and also on ships in general. Because a lot of companies have been reluctant to enter this particular market, and we’ve made the decision to be a pioneer, and to make this investment, and to actually work on developing the technology.

Some of it is new technology, some of it is shore-based technology which has been adapted for shipboard use. We’re doing both, and we set the pace for doing what needed to be done in this industry.

The New Economy: Elaine, what challenges do you face installing this technology in your existing fleet?

Elaine Heldewier: Well it has several challenges, because what most people don’t understand, or perhaps don’t realise, is that you can’t just take a piece of technology or equipment that works very well on a land-based operation, and just put it on a ship and expect it to work.

We wish it was like that; unfortunately it’s not!

You have to marinise it, so to speak. And that means that you have to adjust it, you have to tweak it, you have to do more research and development.

What we’re working on, there’s no magic bullet, there’s not one single solution that fits for a fleet of more than 100 ships.

Let’s say you’re moving into a new house, okay? And you have your furniture. So the previous house, everything, you moved it in fine, no problem. Now your new house, you have this very narrow stairwell. So how are you going to bring your bedroom furniture into that stairwell? So you have to be creative. How am I going to do it?

But that’s how you learn. If you don’t do that, you just won’t learn, and you won’t advance technology as well. But it’s not that easy.

The New Economy: Jim, what is driving Carnival Corporation’s commitment to sustainability?

Jim Van Langen: This whole approach is values-based. We are committed to protecting the environment, particularly the marine environment where are vessels sail every day, and conserving the earth’s resources.

That is clearly articulated in our HESSS policy – the HESSS policy addresses health, environment, safety and security, as well as sustainability. And what it does is, it articulates the basic values that we believe in, and then it goes on to say how we’re actually going to do that.

But it’s a values-based approach. Protecting the environment, protecting the health and safety or our guests and crew members. It’s as important to deal with these non-financial aspects of the business as it is to take care of the financial aspects.

Elaine Heldewier: What I would add to that perhaps is that our communities are extremely important. We go over more than 700 ports annually – that’s a lot of places!

We work with our communities, we work with our ports, and we want to make sure that it’s a win-win for both, for them and for us. And the way that we do that is that we communicate clearly what’s going on with the ship, how we do things. And that’s important.

The New Economy: Are you getting calls from your shareholders, your other stakeholders, your passengers, to improve your sustainability record?

Jim Van Langen: It’s important to our guests – who come first and foremost in our business – but it’s also important to us to recognise it not simply as a matter of policy, or a procedure, or a standard. It’s actually the right thing to do, as our chairman has told us in the past. It’s the right thing to do, which is why we’re doing this.

All of these activities that we’ve talked about, and all of these initiatives, and the technologies that we are applying, or are going to be applying, are all driven towards fulfilling those values that we talked about earlier.

[I]f the sea is clean, and the air above the sea is clean, then we have a clean environment in which we live and work

We literally live and work in the sea and on the sea. So if the sea is clean, and the air above the sea is clean, then we have a clean environment in which we live and work. It preserves it, not just for the generation that’s out there right now, but also preserves it for the future.

Elaine Heldewier: Also we connect people to the sea. Not only our employees, our crew members; but also all of our guests. When you are on board one of our ships, you do get closer to the marine environment, and what that represents. And so on another level, we actually make them feel connected to it, and want to make sure that they want to preserve it as well.

Jim Van Langen: What we must do – and I think that I would encourage anyone in the industry to do – is to avoid complacency. In essence, never be satisfied.

Elaine Heldewier: Yeah.

Jim Van Langen: But also say that we can continuously work on improving what we’re doing, setting new goals, setting new targets, setting new objectives. Moving forward, and when you achieve those goals and targets, then you look at it again, and you set some more.

So as we continually improve our activities and our focus on that, we’ll continue to get better as a company, and continue to protect the environment, and live sustainably.