Over the past 15 years, Viking Line has succeeded in reducing carbon dioxide emissions from its vessels by almost one third. Viking Line is continuously probing the market for future fossil-free solutions.
Viking Line actively strives to decrease emissions, including the operation of Viking Glory and Viking Grace with liquefied natural gas (LNG), and the utilisation of our food waste as a raw material for biofuel.
We have computed the emissions produced by your journey, and you can make a contribution by purchasing biofuel equivalent to the emissions. This will allow us to proportionally augment our biofuel acquisitions for carbon-neutral trips.
Viking Line is now offering its travellers the option to add a biofuel surcharge to their travel bookings. This means that the amount of fossil energy that the ship would have consumed during the transportation is instead replaced with renewable biogas. By using biogas, emissions from the journey can be reduced by up to 90%. Initially, the option to purchase the biofuel surcharge is available on all sailings with Viking Glory and Viking Grace.
At Viking Line, we constantly strive to reduce our climate impact in various ways. Customers appreciate our efforts and have long demanded opportunities to contribute. By now being able to offer customers the possibility to reduce their carbon footprint in a verified manner, we are fulfilling a long-standing ambition and taking a further step in our climate work. We are inviting customers to join us on a shared journey towards a more sustainable maritime industry by enabling them to reduce their personal climate impact.
Our goal is for you, as a customer, to feel that you have made a safe and sustainable choice of ferry company. We aim to earn your trust by conducting business in a transparent and proper manner. Therefore, we set strict requirements for our suppliers and carefully select whom we do business with. When it comes to biofuel, we demand that the fuel meets the requirements of the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED) and that all production, sales and procurement of raw materials for production are scrutinised and certified by an independent third party. The Bio-LNG we take on board the vessels always comes with a sustainability certificate (Proof of Sustainability) that specifies the raw materials used for production, the origin of the raw materials and fuel, and more. The Bio-LNG we use is also ISCC-certified.
International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) is an international certification system approved by the European Commission that covers all types of biobased raw materials and renewable energy sources for the energy sector. It includes sustainability criteria such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, sustainable use of land, protection of natural biospheres and social sustainability.
Viking Line continuously invests in technologies, fuels, logistics, research and development to reduce its carbon footprint and achieve its long-term goal of freeing itself from fossil energy. Increasingly stringent environmental standards require a major transformation in the maritime industry, and it is evident that maritime companies cannot bear all the costs alone. Biofuels are a step towards a more sustainable future, but due to their much lower production volume compared to fossil counterparts, they are also significantly more expensive.
Our LNG-powered vessels, Viking Glory and Viking Grace, are currently fuelled by liquefied natural gas (LNG). Biogas, or more precisely liquefied biogas (Bio-LNG or LBG), is a renewable alternative ship fuel that contains 100% renewable energy and is produced from biodegradable raw materials, such as household waste or by-products from agricultural and food industries. Since renewable Bio-LNG has a similar composition to LNG, they can be blended in any proportion and used together for the energy needs on board Viking Glory and Viking Grace.
The Bio-LNG used on Viking Line's vessels always originates from Europe (mainly Denmark and Central Europe). The biogas is transported through pipelines to Norway, where it is liquefied for use on board ships. From Norway, the liquefied gas is transported to a terminal in Nynäshamn, Sweden, where it is loaded onto a bunker vessel, which then transfers it to Viking Glory and Viking Grace for use as fuel. Viking Line ensures that the entire supply chain, from production to transportation, follows strict sustainability and certification standards.
The LNG used on Viking Line's vessels originates from Europe.
In the circular economy, the value of by-products processed into Bio-LNG increases because they are transformed into renewable energy. The purpose of the circular economy is to maximise the utility of materials or products. Everything that is manufactured should be used for as long as possible. When a product reaches the end of its lifecycle, it is reused or recycled as much as possible, repeatedly. In the case of biogas, this means that waste or other by-products are converted into energy.
Viking Line already operates according to the principles of the circular economy. The food waste from our ships becomes raw material for biogas production. In 2022, we collected over 1,300 tons of food waste, which produced approximately 100,000 cubic metres of biogas, equivalent to about 112,000 litres of petrol. By offering our customers the opportunity to purchase a biofuel supplement and refuelling with biogas, we are taking a step forwards in our efforts to promote the circular economy.
We also reuse all the wall-to-wall carpets on our ships. When it's time to replace the carpets, they are rolled up and sent back to the factory where they are used to make new carpets. Similarly, our textiles such as sheets, blankets, tablecloths and workwear are reused. They are collected, broken down into fibres and given a new life as new textiles.
A ship's energy consumption consists of the propulsion for each journey, including port calls. In addition, the daily operations on board, such as lighting, ventilation, kitchen and restaurant activities, and others, affect energy consumption. All of this constitutes the ship's total consumption. The energy used by the ships is obtained from the fuel carried on board. The more we can improve the ship's energy efficiency, the less energy is needed, resulting in lower fuel consumption and emissions. Over the past 15 years, we have succeeded in improving the energy efficiency of our fleet by about 30%, which means that our ships now consume nearly one-third less energy per nautical mile travelled compared to before.
By consuming energy, we are able to transport passengers and cargo on the ships. The more passengers or cargo units we transport on each sailing, the lower the consumption per passenger or cargo unit.
We calculate how much energy a ship consumes to transport one passenger over a certain distance, such as between Stockholm and Turku. To smooth out variations in weather conditions, navigation or passenger numbers, we calculate this on an annual basis. This way, we determine how much energy is consumed to transport one passenger over a specific distance. When our customers add a biofuel supplement to their bookings, we check how many people have travelled and the distances involved. Then we place an order with our fuel supplier for a corresponding amount of biofuel that matches the energy consumed.
Ships regularly take on board biogas as they are refuelled with LNG. The frequency of biogas refuelling depends largely on the demand from our customers.