Cruise line’s latest sustainability report highlights its successes so far and plans for the future
By
Elly Yates-Roberts |
AIDA Cruises aims to have at least 94% of its guests sailing on ships that can be fully operated with low-emission LNG or with green shore power in port by 2023 as part of its ultimate goal to become a carbon-neutral cruise line, according to its latest sustainability report.
To achieve this aim, AIDA will build new vessels or retrofit older ones with the necessary green technology. The company launched the world’s first-ever LNG powered ship, AIDAnova, in late 2018 and it has plans for two more fully LNG-powered ships by 2023.
As well as using LNG, renewable shore power and modern exhaust gas cleaning systems to reduce the fleet’s emissions, AIDA Cruises is working to reduce and eliminate the use of plastic and disposable products and food waste onboard its ships.
Working in collaboration with Meyer Werft shipyard and other partners, AIDA is also taking another technological leap with the first practical trial of fuel cells aboard one of its ships planned for as early as 2021.
“As Germany’s market leader for cruises, we accept the ecological and social challenges that we face both now and, in the future, and we are taking responsibility,” said Felix Eichhorn, president of AIDA. “Today we are already exploring the use of fuel cells, batteries or liquefied gas from renewable sources in the cruise industry. We are committed to both the Paris climate targets and those of the International Maritime Organization. Our long-term goal is clear: emission-neutral cruising.”
Each AIDA ship spends around 40% of its time in port and as such, shore power is increasingly on the company’s agenda. The line aims to use shore power from renewable sources to reduce port emissions to virtually zero. All AIDA ships built since 2000 are equipped for the technology, making a total of 12 able to use shore power by 2020.
In 2018, AIDA Cruises teamed up with state governments in Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to promote environmentally friendly cruise tourism and provide shore power at the ports of Kiel and Rostock in Germany by 2020.
Read the full report.