CFI executive editor Jon Ingleton introduces a new declaration that provides a pathway to a sustainable future FEATURE The passenger shipping industry is making giant strides towards greater sustainability, with big wins recorded for fuel, emissions, energy efficiency and other projects. To date, though, there has been no coordinated cross-industry action plan for ship interiors, with progress in this field made primarily from isolated islands of activity. There are a significant number of passionate interior designers, specifiers, outfitters, suppliers and others who are individually taking steps to improve the sustainability of their professional output, sometimes alone but often with the support of their business. However, there has been little industry-wide guidance or regulation to direct priorities. Unlike land-based construction, there has been no common best practice framework for sustainably building and maintaining ship interiors that can unite this community in the pursuit of collective goals. Interior designers and specifiers of land-based buildings have certifiable environmental guidelines that they can adopt and follow that do not exist for maritime projects. But in the maritime sector, it has been down to progressive shipowners to write their own guidelines or adapt practices from other industries. Future shipping passengers and crew must be assured that the maritime interiors they inhabit are built to impeccably high environmental standards. We have a commitment to them, a duty to ourselves and an obligation to the planet. Now, with the impending launch of the Sustainable Maritime Interiors initiative, we can look forward to industry-specific guidance, focus and collaboration on a sustainable future. This new initiative is spearheaded by a group of like-minded designers, specifiers and other maritime experts, including the team at Cruise & Ferry, and is based around a declaration of advocacy and action for the environment. The Sustainable Maritime Interiors Declaration (SMI Declaration) will not solve the challenges that we face but it will give us a starting point from which to move forward more positively. It will guide owners, designers and specifiers and it will inspire other stakeholders to contribute the missing elements that are needed to build and maintain more sustainable ship interior life cycles. “ This Declaration will be a north star to help with my design process, and it will connect me with a likeminded community that shares the same priorities” My Nguyen, Holland America Group A commitment to sustainability for maritime interiors 42
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