1 2 2 V IEWPOINT The future of maritime sustainability By Mark Henderson, Magicman Now that sustainability is a central priority in today’s shipping industry, shipbuilders and contractors must look to new practices to improve their projects and processes The maritime industry has received some bad press for its sustainability record, quite rightly at some times and in some sectors. However, not enough credit is being afforded to the cruise sector which, perhaps because of its public facing focus, leads the way in introducing and experimenting more sustainable initiatives in all aspects of its operations. It is easy to point fingers at the popular targets of emissions as Friends of the Earth did in its 2022 Report Card, which suggested that clean cruising was impossible. But is this really a reflection of the effort and drive behind the scenes to incorporate many new and innovative strategies that are not included in such ‘broad brush’ reports? To me, every effort seems to be being made across the board to be more environmentally aware. There are many new sustainable products being used onboard, from carpets and fabrics to soaps, detergents and cleaning products, lighting systems, and other low energy usage items. In fact, there is hardly an area or material that cannot be responsibly sourced, but none of this great effort seems to be recognised or count towards offsetting some of the other larger, headline grabbing statistics. Sustainability is a central priority in today’s shipping industry, and shipbuilders and contractors must look to new practices to include sustainable initiatives in their design, construction, maintenance and disposal projects and processes. “ Sustainability is a central priority in today’s shipping industry”
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