Brittany Ferries says Green Marine Europe eco-label will drive best practice in sustainability

Brittany Ferries is proud to be one of the first companies accredited by the Green Marine ‘green label’ initiative in Europe.

The company was audited in August and awarded its first accreditation certificate at a ceremony in Paris on 8 October 2020.  Brittany Ferries believes the Green Marine standard will become a benchmark, raising standards throughout the shipping industry.

The green label is a key strand in the company’s sustainability strategy.  It will encourage all staff to play their part across a range of eco-criteria and will enable the business to track progress year-on-year, pushing it to achieve higher standards more quickly.

“It is important for Brittany Ferries to highlight the work it continues to do to improve sustainability, but also to drive industry best practice,” said Christophe Mathieu, CEO Brittany Ferries.

“For us, eco-responsibility and fleet renewal go hand in hand. We have three new ships on the horizon, two of which will be powered by cleaner liquefied natural gas (LNG). A more sustainable future is central to our post-Covid recovery and that’s why I am delighted to put the weight of our company behind this important project today.”

The Green Marine label has been driven by Surfrider, an NGO with a mission to protect, safeguard and enhance the oceans. They partnered with Green Marine, a North American industry-led accreditation scheme which has been running for more than ten years. Surfrider licences now licenses the scheme in Europe. https://green-marine.org/green-marine-europe-eng/.

There are two important elements for shipping companies. Firstly, the criteria on which each company is measured. In Europe, these target the same environmental priorities as the North American program, namely: greenhouse gases, polluting atmospheric emissions, underwater noise, aquatic invasive species, waste management and oily discharges. Each criteria goes way beyond international legal obligations.

Results will be published in a way that makes comparisons easy. Each company will be awarded a mark on a scale of 1 to 5 for each of the green label’s seven criteria. Third parties can be confident results are robust thanks to independent verification, undertaken on an annual basis. Every accredited company will be subject to inspection to ensure that data used is accurate and complete.

Green Marine is a powerful tool that could mobilise the shipping sector across Europe. Brittany Ferries will therefore support its adoption beyond France and will encourage others to sign up, when accreditation applications open again in March 2021.