Carnival Corp. has been named Best Marine Solutions Company in this year’s Clean Tech Awards by The New Economy.
The publication selected the world’s largest cruise company based on its commitment to produce clean and environmentally sustainable technology such as its initiative to install exhaust gas cleaning technology on ships to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from using high-sulfur fuel.
In September, Carnival said it will spend more than $180 million to install this scrubber technology on 32 existing ships, making it the first company to do so.
Other initiatives include Carnival’s goal to reduce GHG emissions by 20 percent in 2015 from its baseline 2005 level. From 2005 to 2012, Carnival has reduced its emission rate by 16.7 percent, including a 3 percent decrease between 2011 and 2012.
Carnival has installed water treatment plants on about half of its entire fleet of ships. The cruise line says it plans to install advanced versions of the treatment plants on new ship builds and will continually upgrade existing ones.
Despite this, some of Carnival’s cruise brands scored poorly on Friends of the Earth’s 2013 Cruise Ship Report Card. The company’s largest brand and the world’s largest fleet, Carnival Cruise Lines, received an F for sewage treatment and an overall grade of C-minus.
Carnival-owned Seabourn and Cunard lines both received an A for sewage treatment and Holland America and Princess received a B and B-minus, respectively. Two other Carnival lines — P&O and Costa — received extremely low grades for sewage treatment (D-minus and F, respectively) and overall grades of F.