Earth Day is upon us, and at MSC Cruises, its Eco ships were designed to preserve and protect the environment with high standards in place for disposing of waste materials while monitoring energy usage and minimizing the impact of its ships to the ocean.

MSC Cruises has implemented the Advanced Water Treatment (AWT) System which recycles and treats waste water according to the highest legal and eco friendly standards.

An Energy Saving System is installed in all of the staterooms and public rooms to automatically monitor electricity usage. This reduces fuel consumption and gas emissions harmful to the environment by powering down unused systems.

Also, there’s an optimization of air-conditioned areas onboard through stateroom monitoring which manages climate conditions in the stateroom at all times and automatically adjusts the air-condition temperature in any instance of excessive or wasteful use.

MSC has received numerous awards, certifications, and recognition for its Eco Ships. MSC Magnifca, the newest ship in the MSC fleet, received The Green Planet Award, which aims to raise awareness about the critical situation the environment is currently facing, and human actions that adversely influence climate change.

MSC Splendida and MSC Fantasia, sister ships both new to the fleet, received the prestigious ‘Six Golden Pearls’ award by the international classification society Bureau Veritas, the only ships in the world to achieve this coveted title. MSC Splendida also received the first Energy Efficient Design designation by Bureau Veritas.

Six Golden Pearls is an integrated voluntary program that certifies corporate compliance with the three highest international standards in the areas of environment (ISO 14001), health and safety (OHSAS 18001) and food safety (ISO 22000). It includes an extra notation Cleanship 2 AWT, for the 3 domains “potential pollution”: air, water, and waste.

MSC Cruises entered into an agreement with CiAl (Consorzio Nazionale per il Recupero e il Riciclo di Imballaggi in Alluminio) in the spring of 2007 for a collection of the boxes storing large quantities of aluminium that had been collected between May to December 2007. The company accumulated more than 22,000 pounds of aluminium, which was subsequently picked up in the port of Genoa.

Drink cans, other cans, aluminium foil, boxes and aluminium packing were all collected and given to CiAl, which recycles the aluminium to be reused in new items such as household goods, furnishings, structures for the construction of houses and transportation and more.

In an effort to both embrace the advances in technology and continue its commitment toward preserving the environment, MSC Cruises updated its e-ticket policy this month and is issuing e-tickets for its bookings.

MSC ships, MSC Splendida, MSC Fantasia, and MSC Poesia have their hulls painted with the new revolutionary paint ‘foul release’ with fluor-polymers, a non toxic substance which helps reduce CO² emissions through the reduction of fuel.

MSC Cruises was one of the first cruise companies to adhere to the Venice Blue Flag agreement, which governs ships transiting the canal of Venice using diesel oils and is designed to reduce their sulphur emissions. The company has received the most prestigious environmental certificates from recognized bodies, both national and international.