On World Oceans Day, MSC Cruises published its 2021 Sustainability Report which highlights six focus areas to transition towards zero-impact operations.

MSC Cruises’ Sustainability Action Plan establishes six key workstreams across the business: transitioning to net-zero emissions, scrutinising resource use and waste, supporting our people, investing in sustainable tourism, building greener terminals, and procuring sustainably.

Actions within the plan are accompanied by goals, with measurable targets. Where possible, these align with relevant industry-approved metrics. These six key workstreams fall into the Company’s four focus areas of sustainability: Planet, People, Place, and Procurement.

The Sustainability Advisory Board for the Cruise Division of MSC Group, which includes the MSC Cruises brand and is chaired by Executive Chairman Pierfrancesco Vago, is responsible for ensuring the continued relevance of the sustainability strategy and for reviewing progress, guided and supported by the Sustainability Team.

Vago said, “While navigating our way through the extraordinary turbulence of the past two years, we have kept focused on sustainable business practices and on protecting our guests, employees and the communities in which we operate."

"Today more than ever, we recognise the vital importance of our environment, and a healthy and viable planet. We are firmly committed to achieving our long-term goal of zero-impact cruise operations by 2050 and we are well advanced on this journey,” Vago added.

“At the same time as a company and an industry we are investing heavily in the accelerated development of environmental technologies and solutions that don’t exist just yet to make these objectives achievable."

"It must be recognized that for this endeavor we also need the full engagement of Governments and other public and private entities to ensure, for example, that the right infrastructure exists on land and green fuels become available at scale for our ships around the world. This we cannot do alone," he further stated.

Linden Coppell, MSC Cruises’ Sustainability Director, added, “The appropriateness and relevance of our Sustainability Strategy and action plans have been confirmed through a materiality assessment requiring engagement with employees, guests and other key external stakeholders, and helping us to prioritise our sustainability topics."

"For each one of them, we have established clear metrics against which to measure progress. Through our future annual Sustainability Reports we will be held to account in achieving our targets," said Coppell.