Havila Voyages wins Kreuzfahrt Guide Award in the ‘Sustainability’ category

Pia Kuusisto (Head of Sales D-A-CH) and Marius Riebandt (PR Manager D-A-CH) accepted the prize in person that evening at a gala ceremony in Hamburg. “Receiving this award for the third year running is a significant honour for our team,” explained Pia Kuusisto at the award ceremony in Hamburg. “It confirms that our investments in emission-reducing technologies on the Norwegian coastal route are having an impact. This success reflects the daily work of our crews at sea and our staff onshore to make ship operations less polluting, step by step.”

Georg J. Schulz, presenter of the award and chief reporter at the “Hamburger Abendblatt”, explained the jury’s decision as follows:

“The ‘Havila Capella’ is demonstrating, on the Norwegian coastal route, what is already technically possible today in terms of more sustainable passenger shipping. Large battery systems enable several hours of electric operation, complemented by hybrid technology, heat recovery, and measures to reduce food waste and lower resource consumption. Havila is thus investing not only in individual technologies, but in an overall concept that also demonstrates the direction in which the industry can develop.”

Technical innovations reduce emissions on the coastal route

The award is based on the specific technical features of the four identical vessels in the Havila Voyages fleet. The ships are fitted with what were, at the time, the world’s largest battery packs developed for passenger ships (6,1 megawatt-hours each). These enable the ships to travel for up to four hours through sensitive ecosystems, such as the UNESCO World Heritage fjords, purely on electric power, with zero local emissions and in complete silence.

When using liquefied natural gas (LNG) in combination with the battery-hybrid propulsion system, the ships reduce CO₂ emissions by around 37 per cent compared with conventional propulsion systems on this route. In autumn 2025, the Havila Polaris also demonstrated the technical feasibility of using liquefied biogas (LBG) on a round trip, which reduced actual (well-to-wake) CO₂ emissions on that voyage by 95.5 per cent.

Clear targets for decarbonisation

Havila Voyages is following a detailed transformation plan to continuously decarbonise its fleet. The ships are technologically designed in such a way that, without the need for structural modifications, they can be gradually converted to operate entirely on zero-emission energy sources such as hydrogen or synthetic fuels as soon as these become available in sufficient quantities and with the necessary infrastructure. Based on a publicly available sustainability roadmap, the company is working towards converting its operations entirely to zero-emission propulsion by 2030.

Bent Martini, CEO of Havila Voyages, emphasises the strategic significance of the award: “The Cruise Guide Award is an important indicator in our Central European market. It demonstrates that measurable progress in environmental protection and technical innovations is recognised by the expert jury. For us, however, this triple success is not a reason to rest on our laurels, but rather confirmation and an incentive to consistently pursue our clearly defined decarbonisation plan for coastal shipping by 2030.”