Visitors to Cruise Ship Interiors Design Expo are in for a real treat as Meyer Turku will be leading the timely conference session, Charting Sustainable Materials with NEcOLEAP and Meyer Turku. The shipyard will be sharing their thoughts on the future of material management and sustainable cruise ship interiors. There will also be an unbeatable opportunity for suppliers to have a real and vital conversation about their sustainable products to the shipyard. As we’re so excited to hear from them at this session, we asked Meyer Turku and NEcOLEAP to share some of their insights ahead of time:
Hello! You’ll be speaking at Cruise Ship Interior Design Expo in December, on the subject of NEcOLEAP – what is NEcOLEAP?
We are pleased that four of our colleagues will be speaking at CSIE. They are: Mirja Rasi-Mäki, Sustainability Specialist; Sarita Manikas, Project Engineer; Jenni Jokiniemi, Architect Coordinator and Liina Vahala, NEcOLEAP Project Manager.
NEcOLEAP is a research and development consortium led by Meyer Turku, one of the world’s largest and most advanced manufacturers of large cruise ships and passenger ferries. The consortium brings together representatives of companies, universities, and research institutes to develop innovative and responsible technology solutions on a global scale.
Sustainability is a powerful driver within the cruise ship interiors industry, but one thing we hear from suppliers, designers and cruise lines is how hard it is to find a consensus on what sustainability is. What’s your view on how the cruise industry can create consensus?
“Achieving consensus on sustainability in the cruise ship interiors industry requires clear standards, collaboration and education. Industry-wide guidelines and certifications can provide a shared framework, while regular dialogue between designers, suppliers, and cruise lines ensures alignment. Emphasizing transparency, life cycle thinking, and consumer demand for eco-friendly and circular practices and materials can help unite stakeholders. For example we have created a sustainable materials’ library in the Sustainable stateroom project, where only materials with different sustainability aspects are considered. These aspects entail, to mention but a few: sustainable raw materials, sustainable production process, reparability, recyclability, recycled material content, low carbon footprint, durability and materials with take-back-systems. The idea is to incorporate this sustainable materials’ library into the MaMa Marine tool in the future. Incentives for sustainable innovation and a collective focus on long-term environmental, social and economic benefits can further drive consensus and sustainable progress”, says Mirja Rasi-Mäki.
There is no single metric for sustainability but a web of dependencies. Digital information management will help us in defining the best practices and ensuring that correct information is shared to correct parties at the correct time. We have made a great effort together with the MaMa Marine team to shine new light onto architectural material data management while keeping sustainability and material lifecycle as core values”, Jenni Jokiniemi continues.
What do designers and suppliers need to know about the future of material management on board cruise ships?
“We are taking determined steps towards minimizing our carbon footprint. New sustainability directives will be pushing the industry to take the leap forward and we want to encourage designers and suppliers to use their expertise to holistically develop their products, and also their manufacturing methods and ways of working, for a more sustainable future. We are eager to hear what kind of material innovations and technical enhancements suppliers are working on, as they are the experts on their own products”, says Jenni.
‘Design is so much more than aesthetics. With new sustainability standards comes a new set of requirements while the existing ones still apply. For marine use, durability, fire safety, acoustics, weight of materials, building methods, maintenance and repairing of materials during building and operation are important factors when specifying products to be used in passenger areas for the best architectural impact. Availability and the logistics of materials and spare parts should be carefully considered and use of harmful chemicals should be minimized whenever possible. All of these aspects affect the lifecycle of the materials and thus the carbon footprint of the ship’, Jenni continues.
Without giving too much away, what can our readers expect from your session?
‘People who come to our session “Charting Sustainable Ship Materials with NEcOLEAP and Meyer Turku” will first hear about the NEcOLEAP consortium and how Meyer Turku is implementing the Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) insights into ship applications. Attendees will additionally learn all about the future of material management for cruise ships and how Meyer Turku envisions a sustainable stateroom’, says Liina Vahala.
Featured Image courtesy of Meyer Turku.
Want more of this?
Check out the Cruise Ship Interiors (CSI) Design Expo Europe blog for more design insights and the latest industry updates. CSI Design Expo Europe is a specialised conference and exhibition catered exclusively to the European cruise interior design industry, with a unique focus on Europe’s luxury ocean, river, and expedition cruising. The next event will be taking place on 4 – 5 December 2024 alongside the Sustainable Design Summit at Excel London.