MSC Group’s cruise division is signing up to a voluntary environmental certification programme for the maritime industry.
It claims to be the first major global cruise company to join Green Marine Europe.
The European initiative was launched in 2020 to create a mechanism that supports shipowners in demonstrating their environmental performance following an initial initiative in North America.
MSC Cruises and new luxury brand Explora Journeys have committed to measuring their environmental performance annually, tracking progress across eight key performance indicators.
These include pollutant air emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, oily discharge, waste management, underwater noise and responsible ship recycling.
Cruise division executive chairman Pierfrancesco Vago said: “Even while we tackled the many challenges of the past two years, we never lost sight of our responsibilities in the long term.
“In line with our commitment to sustainability and our pledge to reach net zero emissions by 2050, the Green Marine Europe label will help us demonstrate our progress and share this with our guests, the communities that we serve and all other stakeholders.
“All of this, while we continue our work on several projects studying the development of green fuels and technology solutions and we look forward to bringing them to life soonest.”
Minas Myrtidis, MSC Cruise Management’s vice president environmental pperations and compliance. added: ‘’Certification to the Green Marine Europe label across our entire fleet will further demonstrate our commitment to environmental sustainability as it also reflects our desire to continually improve our performance in that space.’’