Environmental report card: How cruise lines rate
Looking to cruise?
Consider this:
Friends of the Earth makes available this “environmental report card” of the cruise line industry, that is searchable by destination.
FOE, a a national San Francisco-based environmental organization, recognized Holland America and Norwegian Cruise Lines — two lines that send vessels from Seattle to Alaska — as the cruise lines most attentive to environmental standards. Both companies earned a B- for their overall sustainability grades.
But the Cruise Line Industry Association protests that the assessment is flawed, saying: “This ‘report card’ is not based on science, law, or the facts, and… is rooted in FOE’s own arbitrary and flawed criteria.”
The worst environmental offender this year, FOE reports, is Crystal Cruises, a 22-year-old company which wasn’t on the first report card issued in 2009. Crystal received an overall grade of an F, scoring low in environmental impact categories across the board.
This year’s most improved award goes to Disney Cruise Line, which rose from an F in 2009 a to a C- in 2010. Disney scored higher this year, FOE said, because the line installed an advanced wastewater treatment system.
– Source: InvestigateWest
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