Hapag-Lloyd Cruises is the first cruise operator to offer passengers the opportunity to offset their cruise travel CO2 emissions, in cooperation with the climate protection organization atmosfair. The non-profit organization atmosfair under the direction of Prof. Dr Klaus Toepfer has developed the first climate calculator for cruises. Hapag-Lloyd Cruises will assume a quarter of the voluntary climate protection contribution for their passengers.

Starting in 2011, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises passengers now have the option of donating a voluntary financial contribution in aid of a climate protection project. The cruise operator will support the passengers making a contribution by covering a quarter of the cost, based on the climate calculator for each cruise. Hapag-Lloyd Cruises has chosen to have the money collected support atmofair’s project to supply electricity by means of solar lamps in India.

“The cooperation with atmosfair enables us to make a contribution towards climate protection together with our guests and thus promote an environmentally conscious and sustainable mode of traveling aboard our ships“, explains Sebastian Ahrens, Managing Director of Hapag- Lloyd Cruises.

The concept is very simple: Using a climate calculator on the homepage www.hl-cruises.com/climate-calculator passengers can ascertain their respective climate protection contribution in advance, and decide whether they would like to contribute 75% of this cost, with 25% being covered by Hapag-Lloyd Cruises. The atmosfair calculation method has been officially approved by Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment. Contributions vary depending on the CO2 emissions and thus on the duration of the cruise, as well as the booked category. The full donation amount is passed on directly to atmosfair, who will then use the proceeds in climate protection projects financing renewable energies for households in India.

“I am very pleased that Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, one of the most long- established cruise operators, is supporting the protection of the climate, and is the first within the industry by doing so. Together, we are setting the course for sustainable travel, which is extremely important,” says Dietrich Brockhagen, Managing Director of atmosfair.

About atmosfair: The objective of the non-profit organization is to use the voluntary contributions for the protection of the climate to support non-profit climate projects and partly compensate for the emissions caused. All of atmosfair’s projects aimed at protecting the climate are CDM Gold Standard projects. This means that participants are exclusively supporting renewable energies with their contribution. 
As atmosfair consistently keeps its administration costs low, more than 90% of the contributions directly supported the climate protection projects in 2009. Less than 10% of the proceeds are spent on human resources in charge of donor management and other administrative tasks. www.atmosfair.de