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Costa Cruises has teamed up with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to monitor whale activity and with the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC) to monitor air pollution.
Costa Pacifica is the first cruise ship in the world to install REPCET (www.repcet.com), a trial programme designed to help reduce the risk of whale strikes while plotting the movements of these giants of the ocean.
The REPCET programme uses a global satellite network and the reports of sightings sent by participating ships in order to transmit warnings to passenger and commercial vessels whose routes are likely to take them close to the animals. Whale strikes can injure or kill the animal and also pose a serious threat to shipping.
The project is supported by WWF Italy, a partner of Costa Cruises since 2005. The partnership is now dedicated to a specific project which aims to create an integrated network in the marine protected areas of the Mediterranean. Currently the project involves the Costa Cruises/WWF-protected areas of Miramare in Trieste (Italy), Cabrera (Spain), Cap d’Agde (France) and La Galite (Tunisia).
Costa Cruises has also joined up with the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission and Costa Pacifica will soon be the location of a brand new series of atmospheric measurements for monitoring climate change in the Mediterranean.
Since 2005, Costa Cruises has been collaborating with the JRC on a new way of monitoring climate change. Automatic air pollution monitoring stations have been installed on three of the company’s ships, most recently Costa Pacifica. The data obtained from the stations on board the Costa ships are yielding important results for the JRC, since these kinds of measurements have rarely been taken before, particularly for such a lengthy period on the open sea.
The next round of field observations, scheduled to begin next week on the Costa Pacifica, involves the use of weather balloons that will measure variations in the concentration of ozone at different heights above sea level.
Throughout summer 2010, the Costa Pacifica is operating on seven-day western Mediterranean cruises with port calls at Civitavecchia, Savona, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Tunis, Malta and Catania.
Costa’s ships are among the most advanced ships in the world in terms of environmental design, management, compliance and energy saving. Across the Costa fleet there is a policy of 100% separation of shipboard solid waste and no special waste is ever discharged overboard. Waste recycling is a top priority: approximately 1,675 m³ of glass and 451 m³ of aluminium from Costa’s ships were sent for recycling in 2008. Most of the water used on the ships in the Costa Cruises fleet is produced directly on board using desalination plants.
In November 2009, Italy’s number one cruise line presented the results from the fourth edition of its Sustainability Report (fiscal year December 2007/November 2008), drafted in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative and certified by RINA (the Italian Shipping Register). The most significant results achieved in 2008 in the area of environmental protection were a 5% reduction in fuel consumption per mile travelled; a 5% reduction in consumption of water per person on board the ships; 30% of special waste recycled, amounting to 273,458 kg; 2126 m3 of glass and aluminium sent for recycling; and an 8.5% reduction in the quantity of garbage.
Costa Cruises and AIDA Cruises, the German leading company belonging to Costa Crociere’s group, are the only cruise companies to have their own environmental management system developed in accordance with the latest international standards (UNI EN ISO 14001, issued in 2004) and documented in a Sustainability Report. Moreover, in 2005 Costa Cruises became the first company in the world to receive the “Green Star” across the fleet from RINA. This prestigious notation certifies that all Costa’s vessels comply with environmental standards for the prevention of pollution of the marine environment and it is actually stricter than the prevailing provisions of the international MARPOL Convention.
The technical launch of Costa Favolosa, the next flagship of the Costa fleet occurs on 6 August 2010. Like Costa Luminosa and Costa Deliziosa, Costa Favolosa will be one of the first ships in the world to be equipped for “cold ironing”, namely a system whereby the ship is plugged into shoreside electrical power, enabling generators to be shut down during stopovers in port. Costa Favolosa will start cruising in July 2011.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
