P&O Cruises - Final Grade: "F"

P&O Cruises is a British-American owned cruise line based in England. P&O is a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation, which controls almost 50 percent of the worldwide cruise ship market. P&O Cruises is the oldest cruise line in the world, having operated the first passenger ships in the early 19th century. P&O currently operates seven cruise ships. Its newest ship, the Britannia, is its biggest ship accommodating almost 5,000 passengers and crew.

Of P&O’s seven ships, two have installed advanced sewage treatment systems, resulting in a grade of D- for the company’s 29 percent sewage treatment score. For air pollution reduction, P&O began installing scrubbers on its ships in 2015, so four of P&O’s seven ships are equipped with the technology. One P&O ship has plug-in capability but does not dock at a port with shoreside power. Therefore, P&O Cruises earned a D for air pollution reduction. One P&O ship traveled to Alaska for a single voyage in 2011 but it chose to discharge sewage from those ships outside of Alaskan waters, thereby avoiding Alaska’s strong water quality standards, giving it an ‘N/A’ for water quality compliance in Alaska.

 

P&O Cruises - Cruise Ship Fleet

Ship Name Cruise Line Total Persons on Board Destinations Sewage Treatment Air Pollution Reduction Water Quality Compliance Final Ship Grade
Arcadia P&O Cruises 2960 Australia, Canada, Caribbean, Europe, Mediterranean, South Pacific, U.S. East Coast, U.S. West Coast, Arctic, Central America, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Antarctic, Asia, Hawaii, Mexico, South America 11 05 N/A 09
Aurora P&O Cruises 2724 Australia, Canada, Caribbean, Central America, Europe, India, Mediterranean, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, U.S. East Coast, U.S. West Coast, Africa, Arctic, Asia, Hawaii, South Pacific, Mexico 00 05 N/A 01
Azura P&O Cruises 4350 Caribbean, Europe, Mediterranean, Arctic, Africa, U.S. East Coast 00 05 N/A 01
Oceana P&O Cruises 2866 Caribbean, Europe, Mediterranean, Arctic, Central America, South America, U.S. East Coast 00 00 N/A 00
Oriana P&O Cruises 2640 Caribbean, Europe, Mediterranean, Arctic, Africa, Central America, South America, U.S. East Coast 00 00 N/A 00
Ventura P&O Cruises 4283 Caribbean, Europe, Mediterranean, Africa, Arctic, U.S. East Coast 00 00 N/A 00
Britannia P&O Cruises 4997 Africa, Arctic, Caribbean, Europe, Mediterranean 11 08 N/A 10
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Grading methodology for the 2016 Cruise Ship Report Card

Friends of the Earth’s Cruise Ship Report Card ranks 17 major cruise lines and 171 cruise ships -- Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Costa Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Cunard Cruise Line, Disney Cruise Line, Fathom, Holland America Line, MSC Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Oceania Cruises, P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Royal Caribbean Int’l, Seabourn Cruise Line and Silversea Cruises -- according to four environmental criteria: Sewage Treatment, Air Pollution Reduction, Water Quality Compliance and Transparency.

  • To determine a cruise line’s Sewage Treatment grade, we compared the number of cruise ships in the cruise line that have installed advanced sewage treatment systems against the total number of ships in the cruise line.
  • To determine the Air Pollution Reduction grade for each ship in a cruise line, we graded ships on whether they had installed scrubbers or were capable of plugging into shoreside power. Cruise ships that installed both technologies and docked in ports with shore power received an A, while ships that only installed scrubbers or only installed shore power capability but did not dock at ports with shoreside power were given a C. In addition, ships were given credit if they only utilize low sulfur fuels continuously at levels lower than required by international and U.S. law.
  • To determine the Water Quality Compliance grade for ships operating in Alaska, we used notices of violation issued for individual cruise ships to each cruise line by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation from 2010 to 2014. Ships were given an ‘N/A’ if they traveled to Alaska but avoided Alaska’s strong water quality standards by discharging outside of those protected waters.
  • To determine the Transparency grade for each cruise line we graded each line based on whether it responded to our 2015 requests for information regarding their environmental practices.
  • The grades for each of the four criteria were averaged to calculate the Final Grade for each cruise line.