Ponant has revealed its five key commitments to protect the globe’s oceans in Brest, France at the One Ocean Summit organized as part of the French Presidency of the European Union, with United Nations support.
Hervé Gastinel, CEO of Ponant, took the opportunity to share five founding commitments relating to the environment that the company will be holding to for the near future.
Participating in the roundtable on sustainable tourism on Wednesday, he said said: “We are proud to be invited to present the corporate actions taken to minimize the ecological footprint of our ships. We have ambitious objectives and are pursuing our actions with determination, as it seems to us essential to protect the ocean, particularly the polar ecosystems. In publicizing these statements today, we also want to inspire other players to get involved.”
Five Commitments
1. Consider the whole world as a “controlled sulphur and nitrogen oxide emission zone” for all in the Ponant fleet before 2025. All the company’s ships have already been converted to ultra-low sulphur diesel since 2019, and will soon all be equipped with catalytic systems that reduce NOx (nitrogen oxide) emissions.
2. Reduce CO2 emissions by 15% by 2026 and 30% by 2030 compared to 2019. Ponant said it includes carbon intensity from the moment it starts to plan a cruise, taking into account distances to be covered and finding the optimum average daily speed. By relying on tools such as digital navigation aids and weather routers, the company is further improving the energy efficiency of its ships. Connecting to the shore power in ports that are equipped with this facility, and the use of synthetic fuels like e-LNG, are also under constant review.
3. Completely eliminate single use plastics aboard and ashore from 2022 As has been implemented on the expedition ship, Le Commandant Charcot, the company said is rolling out its “Zero Plastic” policy on all its ships. Key to this measure is a ban on single use plastic water bottles across the fleet, thanks to the installation of systems to produce drinking water from seawater. This amounts to a saving on usage of nearly a million single use plastic water bottles, that’s over 30 tons of plastic per year.
4. Ensure reuse and traceability of all waste by 2025. As well as actions taken onboard, the company works collaboratively with all service providers and ports to ensure recyclable waste like cardboard, tin cans and packaging are being recycled and reused.
5. Embark scientific research teams aboard Le Commandant Charcot The latest addition to the Ponant fleet has two research laboratories and autonomous measurement instruments.
