Friends of the Earth has researched and published an environmental report card on fifteen major cruise lines and 148 cruise ships. The report card looks at:

• whether the ships have installed advanced sewage and wastewater treatment instead of dumping what FOE calls “minimally treated” sewage into the ocean
• whether the cruise line has implemented ‘shore power’ instead of running ships’ engines to produce power when docked
• whether the line has violated 2010 water pollution standards designed to better protect the coast of Alaska

The rating program is somewhat simplistic but is likely the best that the environmental group can do without much more cooperation from the cruise lines. Using this methodology, Disney tops the FOE’s Cruise Report Card, with Princess not too far behind.

Vacationers looking to select a cruise based at least in part on the ship’s environmental performance can access the data at http://www.foe.org/cruise-report-card. Note that there is a tab for individual ships as well as for cruise lines. Some ships individually exceed the reported performance of the cruise line as a whole.

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