Carnival Corporation & plc has released its 2014 Sustainability Report detailing the company’s sustainability efforts across its 10 cruise line brands, including its 2020 sustainability goals.
Sustainability Goals
As highlighted in the report, Carnival Corporation has established 10 goals for reducing its environmental footprint over the next five years, while enhancing the health, safety and security of its guests and crewmembers, and ensuring sustainable business practices among its brands, business partners and suppliers. Three of the 10 goals focus on developing, deploying and operating exhaust gas cleaning systems for clean air emissions, increasing cold ironing capacity and further reducing the intensity of equivalent carbon dioxide emissions (CO2e).
Carnival Corporation announced in November 2014 that it had met its corporate goal to reduce its rate of CO2e emissions from shipboard operations by 20 percent – a year ahead of its initial plan. After meeting its initial goal a year ahead of schedule, Carnival Corporation has renewed its goal to continue reducing the rate of CO2e emissions – also known as greenhouse gas emissions — by 25 percent from its 2005 baseline.
This renewed goal for 2020 extends and reinforces the company’s aggressive initiative to further reduce the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions. As part of the effort, the company and its 10 global brands have developed strategic energy reduction and conservation initiatives, many of which exceed current laws and regulations.
Sustainable Practices Highlighted in Report
Recently the company announced its four next-generation cruise ships to be built for Costa Cruises and AIDA Cruises will be the first in the industry to be powered at sea by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), the world’s cleanest burning fossil fuel. Pioneering a new era in the use of low carbon fuels, these new ships will use LNG to generate 100 percent of the ship’s power both in port and on the open sea – an innovation that will significantly reduce exhaust emissions to help protect the environment and support overall sustainability initiatives.
In 2014, the company released its Business Partner Code of Conduct and Ethics to help business partners within the supply chain to more fully understand and comply with Carnival Corporation’s expectation for legal compliance and ethical behavior. This includes the areas of labor and human rights, environmental protection, business integrity and health, safety and security.
In June 2014, the Carnival Foundation donated $2.5 million over a five-year period to The Nature Conservancy, one of the world’s leading conservation organizations, to advance the preservation of the world’s oceans and seas. Carnival Corporation’s support to The Nature Conservancy will significantly accelerate coral reef restoration initiatives, enhance the value of marine ecosystem services through the Mapping Ocean Wealth program and continue to advance important science that shows how natural systems can help reduce risks to coastal communities from storms and rising sea levels.
In June 2015, the company introduced Fathom, a new brand pioneering a new travel category called impact travel, which is built around mindful, purpose-driven activities and programs that enable guests to make a real sustainable impact in the communities to which the company travels. In 2016, Fathom will make its maiden voyages to two vibrant Caribbean destinations – Cuba and the Dominican Republic – each with different cultures and each with different objectives, but both with common dreams for the well-being of their people.