TUI Cruises appoints independent Environmental Advisory Board

• Professor Stefan Gössling, scientist and expert in the areas of tourism, transport, sustainability, and greenhouse gas emissions
• Professor Horst Harndorf, shipping expert and former head of the Chair of Piston Machines and Internal Combustion Engines at the University of Rostock
• Professor Lucia A. Reisch, professor for consumer  behavior and consumer policy and from 2010 to 2019 a member of the German Council for Sustainable Development of the federal government
• Ole von Beust, lawyer and former First Mayor of Hamburg, initiator of the MARITIME LNG PLATTFORM e.V., the German national LNG initiative

The Environmental Advisory Board will in future meet on a regular basis with TUI Cruises’ management to exchange thoughts and ideas. “As a leading cruise line, our goal is to make our cruises as clean as possible. We already operate the youngest and most environmentally efficient cruise fleet worldwide. In order to move closer to our vision of emission-free and carbon-neutral cruises, we’re working constantly on getting even better. I’m very pleased to have experts on board with us who will accompany us on this journey,” said Wybcke Meier, Chief Executive Officer at TUI Cruises.

Professor Stefan Gössling: “Cruise shipping is one of the most energy-intensive types of tourism and faces a major challenge in terms of its transformation. Together, we’ll hopefully succeed in uniting climate protection and economic efficiency.”

Professor Horst Harndorf: “The key to a carbon-neutral future in cruise shipping lies in the use of renewable fuels while at the same time keeping within ambitious limits for exhaust gas emissions.”

Professor Lucia Reisch: “Although ships produce far less emissions than road traffic, they are pilloried to a far greater degree as far as the environment is concerned. The reason for this lies on the one hand in their visibility and on the other hand in the fact that shipping is excluded from the Paris Convention and has to find its own ways to reduce emissions. It’s exciting to accompany a company setting out to make its own contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals.”

Ole von Beust: “I’m looking forward to the task of reconciling the desire for diversified and discerning tourism with the goals of climate and environmental protection.”

At this moment in time, TUI Cruises operates the youngest and most environmentally efficient cruise fleet worldwide. Six of its seven ships were built between 2014 and 2019. With state-of-the-art technology and innovative projects, TUI Cruises is well on course towards future-oriented solutions and consistently sets new standards in environmental and climate protection. In so doing, TUI Cruises always goes one step further than required by law: Throughout its fleet, TUI Cruises focuses on energy efficiency in order to reduce fuel consumption and thus emissions. On six of its seven ships, the Hamburg-based cruise line additionally reduces emissions by means of an exhaust gas cleaning system. This comprises a hybrid scrubber and catalytic converters that reduce sulfur oxide emissions by up to 99 percent, particulate matter by up to 60 percent, and nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 75 percent – voluntarily, around the world, and around the clock. By 2023, all ships will be able to use shore power. TUI Cruises will put two new ships into service in 2024 and 2026 that will run on low-carbon liquefied natural gas (LNG). Moreover, steady improvements in the area of waste prevention as well as waste and sewage management ensure that environmental impact is continuously reduced during ongoing operation.

Professor Stefan Gössling
Stefan Gössling is professor at the Department of Service Management and Service Studies at Lund University and at the School of Business and Economics of Linnaeus University in Kalmar (both in Sweden). Since 1992 he has dealt above all with climate change and mobility against the background of the need to reduce global emissions. His research includes quantitative, model-based, and social science-related approaches. Gössling has worked in an advisory capacity for UNEP, UNDP, UNWTO, OECD, the World Bank, and the European Parliament. He was a contributing author to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and a member of the advisory council of the initiative “UNEP Global Partnership for Sustainable Tourism”.

Professor Horst Harndorf
From 2006 to 2016, Horst Harndorf headed the Chair of Piston Machines and Internal Combustion Engines at the University of Rostock, which has made a name for itself at international level above all with its research into the reduction of pollutants in shipping. Harndorf’s teaching and research interests included, among others, new combustion processes and injection systems, exhaust gas aftertreatment, and renewable fuels. Harndorf has brought research on environmentally efficient engines an important step forward and makes a major contribution to raising awareness in the shipping sector. Harndorf is co-founder and shareholder of FVTR GmbH, an independent R&D service provider in the field of thermal processes and machines, and a member of the WKM, an association of professors specialized in automotive and engine technologies.

Professor Lucia A. Reisch
Lucia A. Reisch is a behavioral economist, professor for intercultural consumer research and European consumer policy at Copenhagen Business School and visiting professor at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen. In 2017 she was appointed as Leibniz Chair at the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology (BIPS) in Bremen. She is one of the editors-in-chief of the international “Journal of Consumer Policy” and currently in charge of several German and European research projects concerned with sustainable development and health. She specializes in consumer and sustainability policy, empirical consumer behavior research (in particular sustainable production and consumption), behavior-based governance, and innovation research. From 2014 to 2018, Reisch was chairwoman of the German Advisory Council for Consumer Affairs, which reports to the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection. She was a member of the German Bioeconomy Council of the federal government and from 2010 to 2019 a member of the German Council for Sustainable Development.

Ole von Beust
Ole von Beust is a lawyer and from 2001 to 2010 was First Mayor of Hamburg. Among others, it was during his term of office that the concept was developed and an application submitted for Hamburg’s nomination as “European Green Capital” by the European Commission. After his term of office, he founded von Beust & Coll., a consulting firm which, for example, was co-initiator of the MARITIME LNG PLATTFORM e. V., the German national LNG initiative, which it still manages today. Ole von Beust was and is a member of a number of supervisory and advisory boards concerned, among others, with renewable energy and sustainability.