Cunard Cruise Line - Final Grade: "C-"
Cunard Cruise Line was originally founded in 1840. An American-owned, British-operated shipping company, Cunard is headquartered in Santa Clarita, California, and is a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation. Of Cunard's small fleet of three ships, the Queen Mary 2 and the Queen Victoria were both built between 2002 and 2007 and have 2,870 and 4,343 passenger and crew carrying capacities, respectively. A third ship, the Queen Elizabeth, is scheduled to launch in October 2010.
All three of Cunard's cruise ships have installed advanced sewage treatment systems, resulting in a grade of A for the company's 100% 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 (thereby avoiding burning dirty fuel in port) were considered. In total, 0% of Cunard's ships that dock at a port with shoreside power are plug-in capable, giving the company an F in this category. No Cunard ships traveled to Alaska in 2009.
Cunard Cruise Line - Cruise Ship Fleet
| Ship Name | Total Persons on Board | Destinations | Sewage Treatment | Air Pollution Reduction | Water Quality Compliance | Final Ship Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Queen Victoria | 3534 | Central America, Europe, Hawaii, Mediterranean, Mexico, Middle East, Asia, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Pacific | A | F | N/A | C- |
| Queen Mary 2 | 4343 | Africa, Australia, Canada, Caribbean, Europe, India, Mediterranean, New England, New Zealand, U.S. East Coast, Asia, South Pacific | A | F | N/A | C- |
| Queen Elizabeth | 3064 | Caribbean, Central America, Europe, U.S. East Coast | A | F | N/A | C- |
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.