MSC Cruises Becomes First Major Line Awarded Green Marine Europe Label Certification

Thursday, October 19, 2023

MSC Cruises has become the first major line to be awarded the Green Marine Europe Certification, a voluntary environmental certification program for the maritime industry. Green Marine Europe is a partnership between the North American environmental certification program Green Marine and the Surfrider Foundation, a leading European Union NGO in ocean and maritime protection.

MSC Cruises achieved the highest possible score across eight performance indicators that the organizers said represented “environmental excellence and leadership.”

The performance indicators measured were aquatic invasive species, pollutant air emissions – both sulfur dioxide and particulate matter – nitrogen dioxide pollutant air emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, oil discharge, waste management, underwater radiated noise, and responsible ship recycling.

Captain Minas Myrtidis, MSC Cruises’ Vice President of Environmental Operations and Compliance, accepted the award on behalf of the line at a ceremony held in Bilbao, Spain.

Captain Myrtidis said: “We are immensely proud to be awarded the highest possible rating across all of the criteria. The Green Marine Europe certificate is testament to the hard work and commitment of everyone throughout our business, both onboard and ashore, who have dedicated their collective efforts to help MSC Cruises towards achieving its sustainability goals. Our certification underscores our strong performance credentials as well as our commitment to performance improvement, transparency, and accountability.”

MSC Cruises and its sister company, luxury brand Explora Journeys, have committed to measuring their environmental performance annually and submit their results to Green Marine Europe for external accredited verification. Both lines have set targets to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The emissions intensity of MSC Cruises’ ship operations has decreased by 33.5 percent since 2008 and the Company is confident in achieving a 40 percent reduction by 2030.

The line’s flagship MSC Euribia achieved the world’s first net zero greenhouse gas emissions cruise ship voyage from France to Denmark on a mass balance basis in June 2023.

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