MSC Cruises has been recognised for its sustainability efforts, having been voted ‘Greenest Shipowner of the Year’ at the Global Sustainable Shipping and Ports Forum in Copenhagen. The award is given each year to a shipping company which has shown excellence in reducing its environmental impact of day-to-day operation; deploying cutting-edge technologies and practices and driving the maritime’s sector forward to a sustainable future.
Captain Minas Myrtidis, MSC Cruises’ Vice President of Environmental Operations & Compliance, collected the award and said:
“It is a real honour to collect this award on behalf of MSC Cruises. Day in and day out we develop and deploy new environmental technologies, policies and practices to continuously improve our environmental performance.”
Pierfrancesco Vago, MSC Cruises’ Executive Chairman also added:
“I am particularly pleased that peers from across the overall shipping industry have recognised our long-standing and ongoing commitment to protect the environment in which we operate, with particular attention for the communities of the port cities that our ships call globally. Ours has been – and will continue to be – a facts-based journey of continuous improvement, focusing on minimising and continuously reducing the environmental footprint of our operations – both at sea and while ashore. From emissions reduction to energy efficiency, waste and wastewater management, we are equipping as well as retrofitting our entire fleet with some of the latest solutions available in the market, all of which while pushing for the development – and investing in – ever more advanced technologies.”
Future plans for the fleet include the installation of hybrid exhaust gas cleaning systems, which the whole fleet will be equipped with by 2021. MSC Cruises is also making a €5 billion investment in five LNG-powered ships which are due to enter service between 2022 and 2027. In addition, all cruise ships launched from 2017 onwards can ‘plug in’ to the local power grid at the port.
MSC Grandiosa Introduces New Green Technologies
The award comes at the same time that the cruise line is also recognised for its latest ship – MSC Grandiosa – and the systems in place on-board to reduce waste. MSC Grandiosa will be the first MSC Cruises’ ship to feature next-generation selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and advanced wastewater treatment (AWT) systems when she enters service at the end of this month.
The SCR system will use advanced active emissions to control technology and cut nitrogen oxide emissions from the engine by 90%. While the AWT system uses a purification process to filter wastewater from the ship to give it near tap-water quality.
MSC Grandiosa will also feature several other green technologies including ballast water treatment and preventing oil discharges from machinery spaces. All of these initiatives enable the ship to comply with the International Maritime Organization’s strictest environmental standards, allowing it to sail in sensitive areas such as the Baltic Sea and Alaska.
The ship will be christened in Hamburg on the 9 November and will be the fifth ship to join the fleet in the past 30 months as part of MSC Cruises’ plan to build 17 innovative and green cruise ships by 2027.
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