Reducing the environmental footprint of cruise ships during normal operations: a fuzzy multi-criteria approach

Abstract In the context of sustainability alignment, cruise line companies have a key part of their strategic plan, which is the reduction of the environmental footprint of their ships. An action directly linked to this goal is an investment in new technologies that enable more environmentally friendly cruise ship operations. Until now, the literature has adequately examined the importance of aligning cruise ships with sustainability, but little research has been carried out on (i) the identification of the significant advanced actions for reducing the environmental footprint, (ii) the most significant criteria for ranking these actions and (iii) the final ranking of these actions based on the characteristics of each company. This research paper aims to bridge this gap by realizing a first approach to finding answers to the above research topics. This study employs the thematic synthesis method to derive both the legislative framework that governs the adoption of new environmentally friendly technologies by cruise ships and the mandatory actions for aligning with sustainability. Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making (FMCDM) methods are implemented as appropriate in this study’s methodology section. Moreover, the outcome of this research could help cruise companies to select the proper strategies to operate efficiently, reducing their environmental footprint.