How cruise lines are working to make trips at sea more sustainable

With furnishings and fittings from ever-greener materials, cruise lines are increasing their sustainability credentials.

The Peruvian Amazon is a popular route for passengers. Aqua Nera You can take in the river scenery and spot pink dolphins from your top deck. The handrails and carpets on the deck are not what they might realize. Aqua Expeditions The delicate ecosystems they surround themselves with are being protected by ships. Resysta, which is a wood substitute material, is used for decking and railings. Most floor coverings are made from recycled plastic and are approximately one-two liter per square foot.

The ship’s innovative design, which was launched in 2021 by cruise lines, is an example of the commitment they make to providing their ships with eco-friendly and ethically sourced materials. In doing so, they’ve made sustainability a tactile experience for guests while nudging the industry toward a greener future.

“Sustainable interiors have really moved to the top of the conversation,” says Thomas Westergaard, a vice president at Hurtigruten. The line’s Fridtjof Nansen is one example, with hybrid-electric engines and plenty of hygge in the form of flooring that’s Cradle to Cradle Certified, a global standard that indicates materials are sustainable.

Tillberg Design of Sweden’s interior designers have collaborated extensively with several brands, including Hurtigruten. Norwegian Cruise LinesAnd MSC Cruises. When sketching out new ships, Tillberg designers draw from a “responsible supplier library” that includes curtains fashioned from recycled plastic and wall coverings made from renewables such as wood and wool pulp. Tillberg client Tui Cruises now uses Global Organic Textile StAndard–certified cotton for bed and bath linens in every cabin on Mein Schiff 1 and Mein Schiff 2. On NCL’s newly launched Norwegian Prima, decorative tiles cut from recycled glass decorate the Surfside Café & Grill.

Meanwhile, Holland America Line In 18 months of collaboration with Dansk Wilton, a Danish textile company, Origin was developed. Origin is an undyed, fully recyclable carpet made out of natural wool. Rotterdam In 2022. These companies are now attempting to upcycle carpets from renovations, to make them into furniture and signage.

Many cruise lines have also made big-picture investments in sustainability. In 2020, the devastated cruise industry established a goal to reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2050. Now the challenge is to make that goal — or even the ambitious target of net zero — a reality.

The industry’s current focus is on liquefied natural gas, or LNG: a cleaner-burning fossil fuel that reduces particulate emissions by as much as 95 percent as well as overall carbon burn by about a fifth. Just launched, the 2,633-cabin. World Europa MSC is now the largest LNG powered cruise ship. Carnival Cruise Line And Disney Cruise Line Recent years have seen the launch of LNG vessels.

More efficient “shore power” is another way lines are cutting fuel burn. Only a tiny percentage of cruise ports around the world have the infrastructure necessary to allow ships to plug in to their local electrical grids, instead of running their engines when they dock. The tech is available in two ports: Juneau, Alaska and Seattle. Ships, too, need the right hardware — like that aboard the fuel-cell-equipped Silver Nova Which Silversea This summer, plans are to make their debut.

There are other clean-engine technologies still in development: new luxury brands Explora Journeys has ordered two hydrogen-powered vessels, though the first won’t arrive until 2027. Mein Schiff 7, on order for European line Tui Cruises, is being built to accommodate methanol fuel, an alternative energy option first floated in the 1990s that’s seeing renewed traction. Hurtigruten plans to have a zero emission ship arrive on the Norwegian coast in 2030, according to Hurtigruten.

Many lines have stopped using single-use plastics onboard. The clever technology captures heat from the air-conditioning units and allows it to be reused for washing down outside decks.

These stories appeared first in the December 2022/January 2019 issue of Travel + Leisure under the headlines “A Smoother Finish” and “Getting to Zero.”

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