Cruise ship design: completing the (sustainability) circle

Holland America Line (HAL) is celebrating a milestone – two years after it launched a fabric circularity project, that circle has been closed for the first time.   

Holland America Line and Seabourn director of interior design My Nguyen spearheaded the initiative and is keen to share her experiences in the hope that learnings from the project will encourage others in the cruise interiors industry to carry out their own sustainability efforts.  

“I want to share our learnings – sustainability is not a proprietary thing. If everyone does their part, we can make a big impact for the planet,” she says. “Our circularity project is a story of inspiration and reality and shows what can be achieved.”  

The fabric circularity project saw Holland America Line collaborate with Andriali, a family run textile mills business in Turkey, to focus on creating new textiles from waste materials such as stateroom drapery, bed runners, bed skirts, uniforms, towels and bedding. The old textiles are reformed into new textile fibres that are created into usable items on board. 

Soft goods including pillows were taken off two Signature-class ships undergoing cabin renovations. Andriali invested in a warehouse in Miami to chop up the fabric. This was then packaged up and sent to the company’s mill in Turkey to transform the fibres into new yarn. Following this, a product has been formed: beautiful tote bags for the passengers on Holland America Line’s Grand Voyages will be in place for January’s journeys.  

The project has achieved an incredible amount from its very beginning, which all started, Ms Nguyen recalls, with a conversation over lunch. “It was just a ‘what if’ – what if we could keep textile waste out of landfill, and Andriali ran with it,” she says.  

Ms Nguyen says “This is a first step within the possibilities of what could be done. This fabric has been given a completely new life and is now a beautiful product.”  

Reflecting on the learnings gained from the project and how it could help other cruise lines carry out similar initiatives, she says, “You need to innovate ahead of time. We needed to plan ahead with the waste management strategy. For cruise lines, we think about drydocks in 3-10-year increments. This means that we can anticipate what we are replacing so we can plan ahead and partner with a vendor.” 

She highlights it is important to remember “everything has a price point”.  

“Andriali had to get to a price point where there is still a business case for them, but it needed to be feasible for us to consider it.” The key she says, is a lot of negotiation, engineering and discussions for a win-win. 

A great touch on the totes is the QR code that will allow passengers to scan it and read the story of how these products came to be. “Generations in the future are likely to expect sustainability and what is tangible and touchable for them is interesting,” comments Ms Nguyen. 

She sums up, “In year two, we have an outcome that is truly circular. I am proud to be part of a company that values partnerships and innovation to get to an outcome that will make an impact.” 

This is not the only circular project Ms Nguyen and Holland America Line are working on. As well as this, the company can celebrate coming full circle with their Dansk: Re:Shape initiative. Partnering with carpet manufacturer Dansk Wilton, this project repurposes carpet waste into beautiful and functional items like coasters, notebooks and postcards with the intent to sell the items in Holland America Line’s ship giftshops. 

Ms Nguyen reports that shipments of coasters and notebooks will be in all the ships by the end of October this year. This initiative has repurposed more than 1.5 tonnes of carpet waste that has gone to Dansk Wilton’s mills in Denmark. Ms Nguyen singles out how the collaboration spanned many different areas of the business, including the technical team, onboard revenue team, PR and marketing. 

The third project is the Aluminium Furniture Circularity Project. In its early phases, this initiative seeks to address the circularity of aluminium, a critical raw material, which can be found in furniture used on balconies and pool decks.  

Ms Nguyen explains, “We have trialled the project and know it can be a business case.” The biggest bottleneck is the furniture includes materials other than aluminium that need to be separated and disassembled before being sent for recycling, resulting in extra costs to the cruise line.  

But while challenging, once these are overcome, there are benefits to be reaped. “Marine grade aluminium is 90% salvageable, and we can make a positive business case while keeping it out of landfill, with the smelters buying it from us.” One way to support this initiative would be looking at opportunities to combine retired aluminium furniture assets across all Carnival Corp brands by leveraging the timing of overlapping drydocks and investing in a shredder. “We plan to bring the brands together to look at drydock schedules and discuss the business case for combining efforts – and maybe even investing in shredders, but this will take time,” Ms Nguyen says.  

Holland America Line’s and Ms Nguyen’s initiatives tie into Carnival Corp’s broader sustainability initiatives, and they feature in the company’s latest sustainability report. This says, “Our commitment to circular economy principles extends beyond conventional recycling practices to address complex challenges in waste management, particularly focusing on hard-to-recycle items specific to the hospitality industry such as mattresses, carpets, floor covers and various fabrics. Through our comprehensive ship donations programme and strategic drydock operations, we actively work to extend the lifecycle of materials and significantly reduce waste directed to landfills.” 

Ms Nguyen is also excited about future plans, having recently established an interiors sustainability working group across all Carnival Corp cruise lines with her peer Marc Spingler from AIDA Cruises, to share ideas and information. 

Asked how she fits in her sustainability focus with her main job, she explains, “Whatever I am passionate about I work into my daily conversations.” For example, she points out it only takes 10 minutes while speaking to vendors to find out about their sustainability goals and initiatives.  

Summing up her key learnings from the circularity projects she says, “My biggest wisdom is to find people who have as much passion as you; this is not a one-person show. You must be an advocate and talk about it in a smart way to get people inspired to want to join. Another key thing is, don’t be afraid to have conversations with vendors. I call them partners as you really need to partner because each puts in time and resources.” 

Ms Nguyen sums up, “Every year that passes, there is so much more interest in sustainability. Think how much we will have achieved in five years.”