Cruise & Ferry Review - Autumn/Winter 2020

INTERV IEW Powering sustainability Linden Coppell speaks with Elly Yates-Roberts about how MSC Cruises is working to improve its own sustainability efforts, as well as those of the whole shipping industry I n recent years, sustainability has been a major factor in the evolution and continued improvement of the cruise industry. It is also something that MSC Cruises is prioritising in an attempt to acknowledge its own environmental responsibility and to drive the efforts of the industry as a whole. “The oceans and seas have always been at the heart of MSC Cruises and we feel a deep responsibility to preserve and protect them,” says Linden Coppell, director of sustainability at MSC Cruises. “We have a long-standing commitment to environmental stewardship and we continuously look at ways in which we can make further beneficial progress, both in our practices and also with the introduction of innovative, effective and leading-edge technologies to lower the environmental impact of our cruise operations and all activities ashore.” One of the ways that the cruise line is achieving this is by reducing localised air pollutants from its ships, which mainly comprise nitrogen and sulphur oxides. At the beginning of 2020, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) introduced its sulphur cap which required that the amount of sulphur in fuel used in cruise ships be reduced from 3.5 per cent to 0.5 per cent. “This is one of the most significant environmental regulations to be put in place at an international level for shipping,” says Coppell. “As a result, our ships are fitted with exhaust gas cleaning systems (EGCS) to reduce the sulphur emissions to below the limit, or we use low-sulphur fuels. “We have a long-standing commitment to environmental stewardship” 1 5 2