Abstract
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCCL) has made it a priority to become the global leader in environmentally sustainable cruises. Accordingly, RCCL operates their cruises on an ABC policy, which stands for “Above and Beyond Compliance” with regards to the international regulations. These regulations include marine discharge polices such as gray, black and ballast water quality and dumping, hull cleaning and painting, disposal of food wastes, incineration of wastes, fuel standards (percentage of sulfur) and many others. This report highlights the proposed developments of RCCL’s international regulations database and the creation of a user-friendly intranet site. This site will eventually contain all of the environmental regulatory information regarding fuel standards, waste disposal (treatment standards, dumping rules, and collection facilities), ship maintenance (above/below waterline cleaning, and hull painting), and several other environmental related issues (e.g. rules regarding live vegetation on the ship’s deck). The intranet site is a company wide website that will include port specific regulations, as well as the internationally recognized marine pollution (MARPOL 1973/78) standards for operation outside a country’s territorial waters. Additionally, a reference list of environmental contacts at every port will be developed, and the methodology for acquiring and maintaining these contacts will be established. These persons will be contacted to confirm and/or correct the regulations that are documented in the RCCL database for each relevant area to ensure the most up to date and accurate policies are collected and followed.