Cruise lines carbon-offsetting schemes

Cruise lines may not have carbon-offsetting schemes to publicise but the stringent rules and regulations that lines have to abide by. There are limits on the sulphur oxide and nitrogen oxide emissions allowed from ship exhausts and strict guidelines about dumping waste at sea, although most new ships store waste and bring it back to port for disposal. In a nutshell, vessels must be three nautical miles from land to dump treated sewage or 12 nautical miles for untreated sewage; food waste must be pulped before being dumped within 12 miles of land.

1. By 2010, all cruise ships will have to have either a sewage treatment plant or a sewage holding tank.

2. Royal Caribbean International was rightly praised in the report for the money it has invested to improve its green practices, but it is not the only line doing its bit for the environment.

3. Princess Cruises pioneered a system known as ‘cold ironing’ in a number of ports in Alaska and the US, which means it plugs into shore power when docked so it can turn off its diesel engines for the day.

4. All aluminium – cans and foil - used on MSC Cruises' ships is being collected at Genoa or Venice and being recycled. It weighed in at an estimated 15 tonnes in the last half of 2007.