Cruising towards greener seas

THE cruise industry continues to hold itself to a high environmental standard and ACA is working closely with CLIA around sustainability & applauds the following initiatives. Royal Caribbean has announced that its entire fleet will eliminate the use of plastic straws by 2019 in exchange for paper straws.

This initiative is part of a plastics elimination program which will see wood coffee stirrers and bamboo garnish picks being used.

A full audit is underway which will then focus on reducing other singleuse plastics such as condiment packets, cups and bags. On-shore, Carnival has implemented guidelines for its pax excursions which include the treatment of animals in captivity. It is doing a specific audit this year of dolphins in tourism attractions included on their itineraries worldwide.

This is part of a broad reaching Sustainability 2020 program it is implementing.

Ponant has reinforced its support for the Sea Plastics organisation helping to fund its annual expedition to study the impact of plastics on the marine environment and raise awareness for this issue. Also known for its focus on clean ships, right from the design stage, Ponant is building the first hybrid electric polar exploration ship propelled by Liquefied Natural Gas which will launch in 2021. These are just a few examples of the commitment being made by the cruise lines. We look forward to working alongside them and our destinations to help preserve our marine environment.