Carnival Boosts Social Responsibility Performance
Carnival Corporation's 10 global brands are making social responsibility a priority with a range of initiatives:
Ship-to-shore Food
Among the unique new approaches instigated by Carnival Corporation brands is a ship-to-shore food program in Italy. The country has a law, established last year, that encourages donations of surplus food. Costa Cruises worked for eight months with the food bank program Fondazione Banco Alimentare ONLUS and key stakeholders, such as the Customs Agency and the Maritime Health Organization Agency, to design the blueprint to be used in the maritime sector. The sea-going food surplus salvage program – a first in the cruise industry – launched in July.
On the line's flagship, Costa Diadema, which sails weekly year-round in the Mediterranean, surplus dishes that are prepared but go unordered by guests are collected and placed in special aluminum containers that are sealed and labeled to ensure that they can be traced, and stored in the refrigerators on board.
Every Saturday when the ship is in its homeport of Savona, Italy, volunteers from Fondazione L'Ancora download and bring the food to the nearby town of Varazze, where the organization runs a home for 20 children, and provides food aid to over 280 people in need, including refugees.
Responsible Chicken Sourcing
Carnival announced in September that it will shift purchasing policies across its nine leading cruise line brands by 2024 to improve the welfare of sourced chicken, becoming one of the first companies in the travel industry to commit to adopting comprehensive broiler chicken welfare policies.
Working with animal protection organizations, including the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and The Humane League, Carnival Corporation is committed to aligning welfare standards for broiler chicken, ensuring that 100 percent of chicken sourced will be certified by the Global Animal Partnership (GAP).
By 2024, Carnival Corporation will require sourced chicken to be GAP-certified and produced under standards that require all chickens to be given more space and enhanced environments – including litter and lighting. Additionally, these new policies will ensure that Carnival Corporation's chicken suppliers process their products in a humane manner through a multi-step controlled-atmosphere system and demonstrate compliance with these standards.
This broiler chicken purchasing commitment is the latest stride in Carnival Corporation's continued dedication to addressing animal welfare in its supply chain. In 2015, working with the Humane Society of the United States, Carnival Corporation committed to switching to 100 percent cage-free eggs across all its brands by 2025.
Donating used goods
Among the commitments of Carnival Corporation brands are reusing materials and equipment either onboard or donating items in good condition to others. When replacing chairs on a ship in San Diego, Holland America Line, for example, donated chairs to a local group that needed them for an auditorium. The cruise line also recently donated 100 TVs, three grand pianos and 20 laptops to organizations in Florida. In Vietnam, schools, churches and temples received a donation of 680 upholstered footstools. Blankets and towels are among other items that the line frequently donates to nonprofits in port communities.
Likewise, Carnival Cruise Line donates a variety of used, serviceable goods such as furniture, refrigerators, bed frames, cribs, toys, shower curtains and utensils. Some of the organizations receiving donations include the Bahamas Children's Emergency Hostel in Nassau, Bahamas; Black Mountain Home in Charleston, South Carolina; Bridge House in New Orleans; Cockburn Town Medical Center in Grand Turk Island, Turks and Caicos; St. Christopher Children's Home in St. Lucia; and the Salvation Army in Galveston, Texas.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Some other sustainability initiatives include:
Costa Cruises is joining forces with Winnow to fight food waste. Tech company Winnow's mission is to help the hospitality industry tackle avoidable food waste by providing chefs and their staff with creative ways to run a more efficient operation.
Carnival Corporation encourages guests to turn off lights, use recycling bins and reuse towels to cut down on water consumption from the laundry. Holland America Line, as an example, has moved to LED lighting as much as possible to save energy.
Princess Cruises is among cruise lines that have redesigned their food, supply-purchasing and packaging requirements to cut down on plastic items onboard. For example, laundry bags have been switched from plastic to paper that can be recycled or incinerated.
Carnival Corporation ships recycle everything from cardboard, plastic, aluminum and glass to cooking oil. To get crew members excited about recycling, Carnival Cruise Line runs an incentive program across its 25-ship fleet.