Hamburg, 3 August 2023

Mein Schiff uses biofuel for the first time to reduce CO2 emissions. Another milestone on the way to a climate-neutral cruise

As the first member of the Mein Schiff fleet, Mein Schiff 4 has taken on sustainable biofuel and successfully tested it as an admixture to marine diesel (the proportion is around 30%) during her Nordics voyage. The result: fewer emissions and another important step towards a climate-neutral cruise. The 2nd generation biofuel, which was bunkered for the first time, is purely plant based and consists mainly of cooking oil residues. This fuel is almost free of sulphur oxides and in its pure form offers a CO2 reduction of up to 90% compared to fossil fuels. Yesterday, the feel-good ship set sail again from Kiel towards Spitsbergen and Geirangerfjord as well as Sunnylvsfjord. During the layovers in the capital of Schleswig-Holstein, Alesund and Bergen, Mein Schiff 4 is also planning to use green shore power. The next Nordics voyages to Spitsbergen can already be booked. Mein Schiff 7, the newest member of the fleet, will depart from Kiel for the archipelago in the Arctic Ocean on 23 June, 7 July and 24 July 2024. Due to the good connections from Kiel, cruise passengers can arrive and depart comfortably and climate-friendly by train.

Concrete sustainability goals – scientifically tested and validated

The biofuel test run of Mein Schiff 4 is another milestone in TUI Cruises' new Sustainability Strategy 2030. By 2030, the TUI Group cruise lines aim to reduce their absolute CO2 emissions by more than a quarter (27.5%) compared to 2019. This makes them the first in the cruise industry to have their climate targets audited and validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). No other cruise line in the world is currently committing to such an absolute, strictly controlled climate protection target. Among other things, this target is to be achieved through the use of shore-side electricity, clean fuels, increased energy efficiency, for example through environmentally friendly underwater silicone paints and the reduction of average speed – "slow steaming" – as well as other measures. "The completed test phase on board Mein Schiff 4 is enormously important for us and for the climate goals we have set. The reason for this is that biofuels can be used directly in the ship's engines without any costly conversion or retrofitting measures. This shows once again that we are not only investing in more sustainable cruises with our newbuilds such as Mein Schiff 7 and the eighth ship, but are also turning all the screws on the existing fleet to become better and even more climate-friendly", says Lucienne Damm, Head of Sustainability at TUI Cruises.

All information about the sustainability strategy and the topic of sustainability can be found here.