MSC Cruises first major line to attain ‘Green Marine Europe Certification’

MSC Cruises has become the first major line awarded the Green Marine Europe Certification, a voluntary environmental certification programme for the maritime industry.

Green Marine Europe is a partnership between the North American environmental certification programme Green Marine and the Surfrider Foundation, a leading European Union NGO in ocean and maritime protection.

MSC Cruises achieved the highest possible score across eight performance indicators that the organisers said represented ‘environmental excellence and leadership’. 

The program has a number of performance indicators:

• Pollutant air emissions – sulphur dioxide and particulate matter
• Nitrogen dioxide pollutant air emissions
• Greenhouse gas emissions
• Oil discharge
• Waste management
• Underwater radiated noise
• Responsible ship recycling
• Aquatic invasive species

Captain Minas Myrtidis, MSC Cruises’ VP of environmental operations and compliance today collected the award on behalf of the line at a ceremony held in Bilbao, Spain.

“We are immensely proud to be awarded the highest possible rating across all of the criteria,” he said.

“The Green Marine Europe certificate is testament to the hard work and commitment of everyone throughout our business, both onboard and ashore, who have dedicated their collective efforts to help MSC Cruises towards achieving its sustainability goals. 

“Our certification underscores our strong performance credentials as well as our commitment to performance improvement, transparency and accountability.” 

MSC Cruises plus its sister company and luxury brand Explora Journeys have committed to measure their environmental performance annually and submit their results to Green Marine Europe for its external accredited verification. 

Both lines have set targets to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. 

The emissions intensity of MSC Cruises’ ship operations has decreased by 33.5 per cent since 2008 and the Company is confident in achieving a 40 per cent reduction by 2030.

In June, the line’s flagship MSC Euribia achieved the world’s first net zero greenhouse gas emissions cruise ship voyage from France to Denmark on a mass balance basis.