Environmental Stewardship Aboard a Cruise Ship

I just came back from an Alaskan Cruise with my family. My parents and all my siblings & spouses were on this trip celebrating my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary.

Ever mindful of how environmental, health & safety issues affect every aspect of our lives, I like to look for regulatory issues even on vacation (yes, I am a regulatory nerd). This article is about my interview with the EHS manager on board the Holland America Westerdam.

As some of you know, my father is an ISO 14001 and 18001 auditor and since we were on the cruise together, I called the EHS manager and asked for an audience for the two of us. The EHS Manager (only introduced himself as "Roy") was gracious to receive us and speak with us for the better part of an hour.

We learned that all of the Holland America cruise ships have a full time EHS manager. Roy’s duties include not only environmental, health & safety, but also food safety.

It turns out that the Holland America Corporation is ISO 14001 certified by Lloyds of London. Roy said he believes that they were perhaps the first line of cruise ships with this certification. It is apparently becoming more common for cruise lines to seek 14001 certification.

The cruise ship industry has been plagued with bad PR due to waste dumping in the ocean. As a result, the 14001 certification is an excellent way for a cruise line to differentiate themselves and be held accountable for their performance.

Due to security issues, we were unable to tour the facilities below decks, but we were given an Environmental Stewardship DVD which gave an overview of the technology and processes used on board.

I was amazed to learn that the Westerdam has a desalinization plant and drinking water treatment plant on board. So the water we were drinking on the cruise was in fact ocean water which had the impurities removed.

In addition, the Westerdam also has a wastewater treatment plant for "black water" which includes waste from toilets, cleaning water and kitchens. Gray water from showers could be directly discharged to the ocean, however the Westerdam usually combines all waters for treatment.

I asked EHS Manager Roy how they handled adhering to regulatory requirements since they make so many stops in port. He indicated that their corporate office investigates the regulations from their Flag State (the country of origin), the Port State (the state/country where they will dock) and any other regional requirements. In addition, they are subject to MARPOL regulations which are the United Nations regulations particular to ships.

Now, you probably thought dealing with one state and federal entity making rules for your organization was taxing enough, but just imagine the number of rules applicable to cruise ships with many different itineraries.

Holland America has integrated programs, procedures and technology which allow them to minimize the impact to the environment. This includes sorting waste, recycling and grinding food waste into a paste prior to discharging it deep into the ocean as "fish food".

In addition to handling wastewater and drinking water, the ship also processes bilge water to remove any oil prior to discharge. Holland America has invested in new technology to assure that oil is stripped from the bilge water and doesn’t contaminate the ocean.

They are currently experimenting with scrubber technology to diminish the diesel particulate coming from their engines. They are using salt water from the ocean, spraying it into the diesel exhaust to collect the SO2 and NO2 prior to discharge. Then, they run the water back through a filter to remove the contaminants prior to discharging.

All in all, I was impressed with the efforts Holland America has gone to assure not only environmental compliance but regulatory excellence! I would definitely cruise on Holland America again!

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