Costa Cruises - Final Grade: "F"
Costa Cruises is an Italian cruise line based in Genoa, Italy. Founded in 1854, Costa is a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation, which controls almost 50 percent of the worldwide cruise ship market. Costa has a fleet of 14 cruise ships that all sail under the Italian flag. On January 13, 2012, one of Costa’s cruise ships, the Costa Concordia, ran aground and capsized off the coast of Italy, killing more than 30 passengers. As of December 2012, the ship remains on its side in shallow water off the Italian island of Giglio Porto, where a salvage team is working to remove it. In February 2012 there was fire on the Costa Allegra, which left it drifting without power for 13 hours in waters frequented by pirates, before the ship was taken under tow. The Allegra is being scrapped in Turkey and the Concordia isn’t expected to return to service.
Of Costa’s 14 ships, none have installed advanced sewage treatment systems, resulting in a grade of F for the company’s 0 percent sewage treatment score. In determining the air pollution reduction grade for each cruise line, only ships that dock at a port that currently has shoreside power facilities (thereby avoiding burning dirty fuel in port) were considered. In total, none of Costa’s ships that dock at a port with shoreside power are plug-in capable, giving the company an F in this category. No Costa ships traveled to Alaska in 2010.
Costa Cruises - Cruise Ship Fleet
| Ship Name | Total Persons on Board | Destinations | Sewage Treatment | Air Pollution Reduction | Water Quality Compliance | Final Ship Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Costa neoRomantica | 2307 | Australia, Caribbean, Europe, India, Mediterranean, Middle East, New Zealand, South America, Southeast Asia | F | F | N/A | F |
| Costa Victoria | 3194 | Southeast Asia | F | F | N/A | F |
| Costa Atlantica | 3600 | Middle East, Southeast Asia | F | F | N/A | F |
| Costa Mediterranea | 3600 | Caribbean, Mediterranean, U.S. East Coast | F | F | N/A | F |
| Costa Fortuna | 4538 | Europe, Mediterranean, South America | F | F | N/A | F |
| Costa Magica | 4538 | Mediterranean | F | F | N/A | F |
| Costa Serena | 4880 | Mediterranean, South America | F | F | N/A | F |
| Costa Pacifica | 4863 | Europe, Mediterranean | F | F | N/A | F |
| Costa Favolosa | 4880 | Europe, Mediterranean, South America | F | F | N/A | F |
| Costa Facinosa | 4880 | Europe, Mediterranean, South America | F | F | N/A | F |
| Costa Luminosa | 3747 | Europe, Mediterranean | F | F | N/A | F |
| Costa Deliziosa | 3926 | Australia, Caribbean, Central America, East Asia, India, Mediterranean, Mexico, Middle East, New Zealand, North Africa, South Pacific, Southeast Asia, U.S. West Coast | F | F | N/A | F |
| Costa Voyager | 1282 | Europe, Mediterranean, Middle East, Southeast Asia | F | F | N/A | F |
Grading methodology for the 2012 Cruise Ship Report Card
Friends of the Earth’s Cruise Ship Report Card ranks 15 major cruise lines and 148 cruise ships -- Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Costa Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Cunard Cruise Line, Disney Cruise Line, Holland America Line, 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 three environmental criteria: Sewage Treatment, Air Pollution Reduction, and Water Quality Compliance.
- 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, only ships that dock at a port and plug in to available shoreside power hookups were graded.
- To determine the Water Quality Compliance grade for ships operating in Alaska, we used 2010 notices of violation issued for individual cruise ships to each cruise line by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. 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.
- The grades for each of the criteria were averaged to calculate the Final Grade for each cruise line.