MSC Group’s cruise division has signed up to a voluntary maritime environmental certification programme.

The group’s cruise brands – MSC Cruises and new luxury line Explora Journeys – have joined the Green Marine Europe label, which was launched in 2020 to create a mechanism that supports shipowners in demonstrating their environmental performance

The move will support MSC’s pledge to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

MSC Group cruise division executive chairman Pierfrancesco Vago said: “Even while we tackled the many challenges of the past two years, we never lost sight of our responsibilities in the long term.

“In line with our commitment to sustainability and our pledge to reach net zero emissions by 2050, the Green Marine Europe label will help us demonstrate our progress and share this with our guests, the communities that we serve and all other stakeholders.

“All of this, while we continue our work on several projects studying the development of green fuels and technology solutions and we look forward to bringing them to life soonest.”

MSC Cruise vice-president environmental operations and compliance Minas Myrtidis added: “Certification to the Green Marine Europe label across our entire fleet will further demonstrate our commitment to environmental sustainability as it also reflects our desire to continually improve our performance in that space.’’

MSC’s sustainability objectives

MSC Cruises and Explora Journeys have committed to “measuring their environmental performance as per the programme’s guidelines annually”.

This will include tracking progress across eight  performance indicators – aquatic invasive species, pollutant air emissions (SOx and PM), pollutant air emissions (NOx), greenhouse gas emissions, oily discharge, waste management, underwater noise, and responsible ship recycling.

In December 2021, MSC signed an agreement with shipbuilder Fincantieri, and Snam – an energy infrastructure operator – to assess the launching of operating a hydrogen-powered cruise ship.