AmaWaterways recently announced that 18 riverboats in its European fleet (excluding Portugal-based ships) have earned the prestigious Green Award certification.
This fleetwide certification follows the AmaKristina ship becoming river cruise industry's first to receive the designation.
The 18 AMA ships recognized for industry-leading quality, safety, and environmental performance, include AmaCello, AmaCerto, AmaBella, AmaDante, AmaDolce, AmaLea, AmaLyra, AmaKristina, AmaMagna, AmaMora, AmaReina, AmaPrima, AmaSonata, AmaStella, AmaSerena, AmaVenita, AmaVerde, AmaViola.
The Green Award program is an independent accreditation process for ocean ships, river cruise ships, and inland barges. The Green Award certificate is a mark for vessels that demonstrate high environmental standards and safety. To earn the award, river ships are evaluated based on the environmental impact of their engines, fuel consumption, pollution prevention, waste, and maintenance.
Many cruise ports, such as the Port of Amsterdam, Netherlands, offer substantial benefits to certified vessels to promote cleaner and safer inland navigation and to stand up for an integrated approach for European inland waterways.
AmaWaterways’ contemporary ships carry 156 passengers on average and are designed with eco-friendly elements like LED lights, insulated windows that reduce energy needs for cooling and heating, solar heating systems, power locks to plug into the port’s power supply instead of running generators, water treatment plants that use membrane technology for microfiltration and recycling of all water used on board.
The revolutionary AmaMagna was launched in 2019 and debuted an innovative ten-engine configuration designed to reduce fuel consumption by up to 20% depending on river conditions.
AmaWaterways is also continuing to implement new measures across the fleet to minimize the impact on the environment. In efforts to reduce plastic consumption onboard its cruise ships, the river line replaced individual single-use toiletries with shampoo and soap dispensers, plastic straws with paper ones, and added glass water bottles in all cabins. AmaWaterways is also testing the use of tetra-pak water containers in order to replace plastic water bottles during shore excursions.