MSC Cruises sets new QHSE standards

With the entry into service of the 3,950-passenger MSC Fantasia, MSC Cruises has raised the Quality, Health, Safety and Environment (QHSE) bar for all cruise operators. MSC has entrusted Bureau Veritas with the auditing of six of the highest possible QHSE standards for the design of the new ship and also its operation in service. BV has granted MSC Fantasia the “Six Golden Pearls” designation for the best ship for environmental care.

Didier Chaleat, Senior Vice-President, Bureau Veritas, says, “MSC really cares for its passengers, its crew, the ports visited, the sea and the environment. By working with Bureau Veritas during the design and build of this cutting edge vessel, they have ensured that it is built and equipped to exceed all current environmental standards. But they have gone further, and have set up company-wide schemes to ensure that there is a constant environmental performance improvement, that safety is constantly improved, and that the food management chain is covered by a food safety management system audited to the very highest standards. No cruise company has yet gone this far in protecting the environment and its people.”

MSC Fantasia has been designed and built so that it can be awarded Bureau Veritas? highest voluntary notation for environmental protection, CLEANSHIP-AWT. Key benefits provided include advanced waste water treatment and the capability to retain all grey and black water for two days full operation. Additional bilge water capacity is also built in to provide full two day retention for treated bilge water, over and above the latest Oily Water Separators. Hull antifouling conforms to the IAFS Convention on the control of harmful anti-fouling systems and ballast water management complies with the new International Convention and Management of ship?s Ballast Water and Sediments.

Air quality is protected by ensuring that low sulphur fuel is used worldwide, and the main and auxiliary engines have been certified for NOx emission in accordance with latest IMO-MARPOL Annex VI requirements. Flue gas from shipboard incinerators is controlled and ozone depleting substances prohibited.

Solid wastes do not need to be discharged at sea due to the high incineration capacity, and additional storage facilities for more than two days full operation for the remaining ashes, glass, tins, cold and wet garbage are built in.

While many of these design features break new ground, what makes MSC Fantasia unique is the systematic control of QHSE issues in service. In order to maintain the notation CLEANSHIP-AWT specific and regular duties must be carried out by the crew and management during operation of the vessel, re-enforced by onboard surveys, with periodical tests, measurements and reporting, controlled by MSC?s operation and technical management and audited by BV?s experts.