Survey: Environmental awareness among vessel passengers is increasing – more than half of respondents plan to choose climate-smart alternatives
Finnish maritime travellers are increasingly environmentally aware, and for the third straight year Viking Line was named the most sustainable shipping company in ferry service between Finland and Sweden, according to the market researcher EPSI Rating ’s 2024 survey. Viking Line is encouraging its customers to join in the company’s sustainability work, which includes operating its vessels on the Turku route solely using biofuel for one week, starting on Baltic Sea Day.
For the third straight year, Finnish maritime travellers have named Viking Line the most sustainable shipping company in ferry service between Finland and Sweden. In EPSI Rating’s 2024 market survey on ferry travel*, Viking Line’s sustainability index for service between Finland and Sweden this year is 71.5, whereas the industry average is 70.6. The other shipping companies providing ferry service between Finland and Sweden that are included in the survey are Silja Line and Finnlines.
“We are continuously developing our operations from a sustainability perspective, and it is great that our passengers appreciate this work. As part of our sustainability work, we tell people about everything we do as well as the impact this has and also involve customers in our sustainability journey. We are also rated well in the survey for our communication on sustainability. It is clear that our communication is successful too given that, according to the survey, our customers are more demanding when it comes to corporate social responsibility and sustainable development than the average maritime traveller,” says Viking Line’s Sustainability Manager, Dani Lindberg.
The sustainability index in EPSI Rating’s 2024 market survey on ferry travel measures passengers’ views on the shipping companies’ sustainability and sustainable development work. Viking Line gets the highest marks for service between Finland and Sweden in every category: environmental, economic and social sustainability.
“We have carried out focused sustainability work since the 1980s and invested 450 million euros in our climate-smart vessels Viking Glory and Viking Grace. This is long-term work that leads, step by step, towards the emissions-free maritime transport of the future.”
The desire to travel increases when there are sustainable alternatives
Climate and environmental awareness among Finnish passengers has increased since last year. Of the respondents in EPSI Rating’s 2024 market survey on ferry travel, 55 per cent say that they will choose more climate-smart ways of travelling in the future, compared to 46 per cent last year. In 2023, 31 per cent of travellers planned to reduce their travel, but this year that figure has fallen to 24 per cent.
“The increased expectations of consumers encourage us to develop new sustainable products and alternatives for passengers, along with technological solutions. For example, for one year now, we have offered our customers on the Turku route the chance to lower the emissions from their journey by 90 per cent by choosing biofuel when they book,” notes Dani Lindberg.
For its latest sustainability undertaking, Viking Line will operate vessels on the Turku–Stockholm route using biofuel for one week starting on Baltic Sea Day, which will reduce Viking Glory’s and Viking Grace’s carbon dioxide emissions by a total of 2,600 tonnes. That figure is equivalent to the average annual carbon footprint of 270 Finns.
“This is a significant step towards emissions-free maritime transport, since scheduled ferry service has never before run solely on biofuel. Continuous use of biofuel is not possible at present for cost and availability reasons, but we hope this will encourage as many of our cruise, conference and cargo customers as possible to choose biofuel for their journeys. In that way, our passengers can contribute concretely to reducing emissions while at the same time protecting the Baltic Sea, which we all hold dear to our hearts.”
*For EPSI Rating’s 2024 market survey on ferry travel, EPSI Data Collection Services interviewed some 2,000 private customers over the age of 18 who have travelled by boat to or from Finland over the past 12 months. The index uses a scale from 0 to 100, where 0–60 is dissatisfied, 60–75 is satisfied and over 75 is very satisfied.
For further information:
Dani Lindberg, Sustainability Manager
dani.lindberg@vikingline.com, tel. +358 18 27 000
Johanna Boijer-Svahnström, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications
johanna.boijer@vikingline.com, tel. +358 18 270 00
Christa Grönlund, Press and PR Manager
christa.gronlund@vikingline.com, tel. +358 9 123 51
