For us sustainability means protecting the environment, supporting the people who work with us and choose to travel with us, as well as the communities and ports that we call in.  We’ve worked so hard on this aspect that we’ve been recognized as Porthole Reader’s Choice Award for Most Eco-Friendly Cruise Line and been awarded with Maritime Industry Category Award by the North American Marine Environment Protection Association at the 2020 Marine Environment Protection Awards.

 

Four Areas of Focus

 

Our sustainability program is organized around four key pillars: Planet, People, Place and Procurement. This translates into a drive to continuously improve our fleet’s environmental performance; caring for all employees and promoting diversity and inclusion; working to ensure that our impact on the coastal communities that we reach remains positive; and responsibly sourcing the products and services that we purchase.

 

 

Planet

Our long-term goal is to achieve zero emissions across all operations, at sea and ashore.

We’ve also focused on reducing plastic waste. In 2018 we identified the items that represented the majority of our plastic waste and by the end of 2019 had replaced each of them with an environmentally-friendly alternative.

 

People

MSC Cruises employs tens of thousands of people worldwide from 124 different nationalities, and thanks to our expansion plan these numbers are set to increase.

Women already make up more than half of our shoreside staff and our aim is to increase onboard female staff to 50% by 2024.

 

Place

We work with tour providers who employ locally a to create jobs and engage with the community.  In 2019, approximately 10% of our excursions were with tour operators certified to the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) standards. 

In December 2019, we welcomed our first guests to Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve in The Bahamas, a stunning tropical island destination, with sustainability at its core, created from a former industrial sand excavation site. Our long-term ambition is to evolve Ocean Cay into a National Marine Park, in which the ecosystem receives maximum protection and where people and nature can live in harmony.

 

 

Another important milestone in 2019 was the launch of the MSC Foundation. The focus areas of the MSC Foundation are: environmental protection, support for the most vulnerable communities around the world through education and medical care, and support for populations affected by natural disasters.

 

Procurement

From large mechanical parts for our ships to ingredients to feed thousands of people at a time, down to the smallest details, like toiletries and medical items, we need to buy a huge amount of supplies for our fleet, crew and guests.

In 2019 about 80% of food and beverage items were also sourced locally.

Our program, ‘Local as First Choice’, aims to localize our procurement activities and support local communities.

A move towards sustainability is not only the right thing to do, it’s a must for society as a whole. Every day the choices we make have an impact; at home, at work, outdoors, in the things we buy, in our leisure time and on holiday.  To find out more details about how MSC Cruises is contributing, follow the link below to the full report.