INTERFAITH OCEANS Applauds Carnival Corporation’s Moves to Sustainability and Service

June 10, 2015 /3BL Media/ - Just four days before today’s World Oceans Day, Carnival Corporation unveiled their newest cruise line – fathom™, dedicated to impact travel, where cruisers do volunteer work in the destination country. Invited to the announcement event were members of INTERFAITH OCEANS – a multi-faith ethics campaign dedicated to bridging faith and science, restoring oceans and their communities. Director Lorbiecki said,  “The poor everywhere are always the most harmed by environmental destruction. And small island developing nations have been struggling for the world to hear about their challenges. Carnival’s choice to provide a way for its cruisers to respectfully engage in service, community building and one-on-one friendships, directed by the people of the country themselves, is wonderful.”  Religious congregations are generally oriented toward service, so this line can offer ocean experiences that help build awareness and action.

The destination for fathom in its first season, 2016, will be the Dominican Republic, where local nonprofits, businesses, and government agencies have helped design service projects.  A sample includes:

• Help cultivate cacao plants and organic fertilizer at a nursery and assist a local women's cooperative in producing artisan chocolates. The reforestation will help absorb excess carbon in the atmosphere that causes ocean acidification.
• Work with Dominican school teachers to teach English skills and help boost students' academic performance;
• Craft and build water filters with local people – using regional clay -- and deliver those filters to families to provide healthy drinking water, which is presently limited.

President of the fathom line is Tara Russell, the social entrepreneur who founded Create Common Good (www.createcommongood.org). Each week from April through October, fathom will bring over 700 willing workers to the area, and a portion of each ticket will go to the local community organizations. Fathom participants will have a day and a half of preparation on board, including orientation to the country and the service opportunities, conversational Spanish lessons, and creative workshops, among other activities. “Together we aim to help communities and travelers flourish by providing immersive, life-changing experiences for travelers and allowing our partner communities to prosper," said Russell.

Since cruise lines have been contributors to ocean pollution, INTERFAITH OCEANS applauds the fact that Carnival is also committed to greater ocean responsibility in its fleets:

• investing more than $400 million to install the industry's first exhaust-gas cleaning technology across the fleet.
• reducing CO2 emissions by 20 percent across the fleet;
• creating a relationship with The Nature Conservancy focused on the Caribbean with a five-year $2.5 million grant.

Later this year, Carnival will be launching the world's most environmentally friendly ship with AIDA, and for the second year in a row, Carnival Corporation received the Clean Tech Award from the New Economy for its sustainability efforts.

“We want to recognize such initiatives with gratitude, as these actions will help raise cruising standards across the world,“ said Lorbiecki. “Fathom will also help redesign vacations and allow participants to return to their homes and faith communities with a new sense of vision – of the ocean, of the places and people they visited, and of themselves.”  

For media queries, please contact INTERFAITH OCEANS Managing Director, Farley Lord Smith at 202-590-0771, farleylord@gmail.com.

ABOUT INTERFAITH OCEANS: INTERFAITH OCEANS, formerly the Interfaith Ocean Ethics Campaign (IOEC), works with partners of varying faith traditions, scientific advisers, and ocean conservation organizations to protect and restore ocean systems, species, peoples and cultures. It is dedicated to making everyone, but especially people of faith, more aware of the wonder and interdependency of the oceans with the lives of human beings, and engaging them in the blessed work of caring for them.