Cruise and container shipping companies: a comparative analysis of sustainable development goals through environmental sustainability disclosure

ABSTRACT

The shipping industry, due to the ships’ gigantism trend and the concentration of operations in specific regions, is considered the source of both positive and negative impacts for port-cities. The ambitious objective of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) for the decarbonisation of the sector till 2050 has further shifted attention on the activities and policies that shipping companies adopt and implement not only for complying with international regulations but moving beyond, integrating sustainability priorities and goals into their corporate strategic planning. In the context of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, this paper aims at investigating the nature and orientation of voluntary disclosure practices and environmental sustainability for achieving the SDGs in the maritime industry, focusing on the cruise and container shipping markets. Analysis confirms the companies’ commitment towards meeting the 2030 Agenda through dedicated sustainability strategies. However, it revealed the qualitative nature of reported information and the lack of specific indicators for measuring and evaluating sustainability performance at the corporate level.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainability disclosure framework
• SDGs
• shipping
• cruise
• non-financial reporting

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In the last decade, the international demand for cruises increased by over 20 million cruise passengers (CLIA 2019; STATISTA 2018), and likewise, the ships have been becoming progressively larger, with a carrying capacity of upwards of 6,000 passengers.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Department of Law, University of Naples ‘Parthenope’.