The boss of Carnival Corp says sustainability will soon be a watchword for cruise customers as he reiterated his passion to operate the company in more environmentally-friendly manner.
Speaking during a Travel Weekly webcast, Josh Weinstein explained how he also became the world’s largest cruise company’s chief climate officer on August 1, the day he also became president and chief executive.
He said his three children help drive him to fulfil the company’s sustainability goals.
Asked whether customers or corporate policy dictated sustainability goals at Carnival Corporation, he said: “[Sustainability] is not yet top of guests’ minds when they’re making their decisions about which cruise line to book, but soon it will be.
“It’s only a question of when that tipping point will happen.”
Weinstein explained how he wanted to continue to “show a track record of steps towards decarbonisation every single year”, echoing his predecessor Arnold Donald’s sentiments.
The former president told Travel Weekly that Carnival Corp’s sustainability goal was “continuous improvement“.
In July, 2022, Carnival Corp updated the baseline year for its 2030 carbon intensity reduction goals to 2019 from its initial 2008 baseline.
This means the company is now trying to achieve a 20% reduction from 2019, rather than 2008.
He said: “Carbon is the biggest problem that we’ve got. I am proud of the fact that our carbon emissions peaked in 2011, despite the fact our fleet is 20-something per cent bigger today than we were back in 2011.”
He highlighted the positive effect of retrofitting ships with technologies to make them “more efficient” and “consume less” fuel as well as itinerary planning.
“We’ve got to be thoughtful with our itinerary planning – go shorter distances, slower and use less fuel,” he said.
Weinstein also hopes to “blow through” the revised carbon intensity reduction goal for 2030.
“There are hundreds and hundreds of people within this corporation that are actively working towards that goal every day,” he said. “So I feel good about that.”
But he pointed how decarbonisation was just one piece of the overall sustainability picture. He said: “We’ve got a litany of things where we’ve tried to make ourselves do better and we are. I’m very passionate and proud about them.”
More: Carnival Corp’s sustainability goal is ‘continuous improvement’