MSC Cruises South Africa invited Travel News’s Marita Nortje to the launch of MSC World Europa in Doha.
Speaking on board MSC World Europa on Sunday, November 13, Pierfrancesco Vago, Executive Chairman of MSC Cruises, said, to MSC, sustainability meant protecting the environment and marine safety, plus supporting the people who worked and travelled with the cruise line, as well as the communities and ports of call and the companies it did business with.
The MSC sustainability programme has four pillars: planet, people, place and procurement.
Reducing the impact on the environment has played an integral part in the ship’s design, and energy efficiency is key in its operations. The unique design of MSC World Europa’s bow and stern make it optimally efficient in the water. Even the heat from the engines is used to warm water in the ship.
The ship’s environmental credentials include use of solid oxide fuel cells, a selective catalytic reduction system, enhanced shore-to-ship power capability, as well as use of LNG power.
Decarbonisation of MSC’s marine operations is a core element of its sustainability strategy: the group intends to meet the International Maritime Organization’s intensity ambition of 40% reduction by 2027, three years earlier than the industry target date of 2030.
As MSC’s first LNG-powered ship, MSC World Europa’s carbon emissions have been reduced by 25% compared with those produced by use of conventional fossil fuels, and it can harness shore power on land where available.
Use of fuel cell technology has also been piloted on the ship. This means that fuel cells convert chemical energy of fuels into electrical and thermal energy and that clean energy is then used to power the ship’s propulsion or auxiliary power systems without generating greenhouse gases.
Fitted with the latest freshwater production plants, MSC World Europa produces 80% of all fresh water used on board. The water it uses for the swimming pools, ballast and sanitary facilities is desalinated, filtered and sanitised sea water, from which micro-organisms have been removed. About two million litres of fresh water is produced daily through this process.
All organic waste, recyclable disposable items such as plastics, metals, paper and glass from the ship are collected and separated, compacted or incinerated. Residual waste is delivered to dedicated port facilities.
As the largest LNG-powered cruise ship in the world, MSC World Europa is also the greenest, using its ground-breaking technology to manage pollution of the maritime environment and protect the ocean.
