May 15, 2025 • 21 mins
Host Birgit Liodden is joined by Gerry Larsson-Fedde, Chief Operating Officer at Hurtigruten Norway, to explore the cruise line’s bold vision for a net-zero future.
With over 40 years in the maritime industry, Gerry brings deep experience and personal commitment to sustainable innovation.
Together, they dive into Hurtigruten Norway’s pioneering initiatives, from hybrid legacy vessels and shore power integration to the ambitious Sea Zero project—developing a low-emission passenger ship for the Norwegian coast by 2030.
Gerry shares real-world insights into overcoming infrastructure bottlenecks, electrification challenges, and the importance of energy reduction, no matter the fuel of the future.
The conversation also spotlights the power of collaboration with startups and innovators—how Hurtigruten Norway partners across the value chain to test bold ideas, from sail-assist technologies to circular food waste solutions.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
>> Birgit Liodden (00:01):
Welcome to the Cruise Pioneers podcast by tool
hosted on Seatrade Trade Cruise Talks
podcasts.
Hello, I'm Birgit Leodon, Sustainability Ambassador
of Seatrade Trade and founder of the Ocean Opportunity Lab.
In this new series we will dive into the pioneering
initiatives of cruise lines and entrepreneurs who
(00:22):
move and change the cruise industry. We focus on
real life frontrunner initiatives and power
couples and enabling crews to move
from pollution to solution. Get on board
our shared expedition as we get behind the
scenes and explore how owners,
founders and top executives move m from
vision to deployment. And with me today from
(00:44):
Gdansk in Poland is Jerry Larson Feda.
The Chief Operating Officer of Hutirutn.
Gary is an energetic and team focused leader
with more than 40 years of experience in the maritime
industry. His experience include commanding
officer and captain positions in the Royal Norwegian
Navy, RCCL and Celebrity. He has
held MD and VP positions with
(01:06):
rccl, Norwegian Hydrographic Services,
Trump's Offshore Supply, Costa and Carnival
Maritime. Now as Chief Operating
Officer in Hutteriten, Gary puts his
efforts into continuous improvements and
sustainability by enhancing his team members
strengths. At Hirschrutten he has
(01:26):
launched the ambitious C0
project to design the first
larger Zero Mission passenger vessel to sail
the magnificent Norwegian coast. Welcome
on board Gary.
>> Gary Larson Feda (01:38):
Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you for having me.
>> Birgit Liodden (01:41):
So I am so excited to have you with us in the studio
today. I would like to start by hearing
about both your company pioneering
commitment but also a bit about your
own personal commitment as a cruise pioneer
with amazing high level targets for a
clean, waste free and nature friendly
(02:02):
operation.
>> Gary Larson Feda (02:03):
Yeah, as you know I think Hurtruten has a long
standing tradition on trying to be in
the forefront of the sustainability journey.
Houthruten started with this quite a few years back
with banning the use of or
stopping the use of heavy fuel oils, banning single use
plastics and getting all ships
equipped with the shore power connectivity. And
(02:25):
then as the last, as you mentioned we are now working on
this last project which is related to coming up with
a Hurtruten ship or a passenger ship that can be
operational on the Norwegian coast by 2030
with zero net zero emissions.
So I think joining Hutterruten
now for a little bit more than four years ago, one
(02:47):
of the drivers for me being in her truth is obviously
the fact that we have a history, we have a long
standing history. We are operating in a very very
sensitive area all the time. We want to
continue doing what we've done for 132 years. For another
132 years. But that also
demands that we do certain things also on
our ships to be
(03:08):
as sustainable as possible, also moving
forward.
>> Birgit Liodden (03:12):
And how did your own personal journey start
through all of your years working in maritime?
Where did the kind of environmental and
sustainability focus trigger happen inside of you?
>> Gary Larson Feda (03:24):
I think it started getting triggered
as we as I worked with other members of the
cruise industry and looking, always looking
at news flashes coming saying Houthruten
is doing this, Houtruten is doing that. And I was always thinking
why didn't we do that? Why is always
Hurtruten the one that's telling me that this can
(03:45):
be done and this can be done. So also through
my previous jobs where when I worked with
the other cruise lines we also had a lot of focus on
environmental programmes in all those
companies and taking that a
step further when joining Hoodruten and
seeing what actually can be done moving forward
(04:06):
on our ships as well. And
one of the first things that I got into when I joined Hootrutten
was actually the project of the hybridization of three of
our ships. Saying that I started my
journey with the maritime industry and with Hootruten
actually when I was 10 years old when I was on board Ms.
Vinland Sol where my dad was the chief officer.
So it's kind of a little bit of the end
(04:29):
of the circle to be back in Hootruten now many
years later.
>> Birgit Liodden (04:33):
Yeah, indeed, full circle.
And of course it's so interesting to look at
the whole sustainability journey of the cruise industry
into a more kind of like competitive edge and the
opportunity for both becoming
more business worthy but also of course attract new
groups of guests and passengers that
(04:54):
normally warrant that into cruise.
And I wonder because of course your ambitions with
your project is immensely high,
can you share a bit about your current project?
what's the work that has been laid down so far? Where
are you ahead of the group's targets? And are
there any areas where you really have experienced
(05:15):
more challenging bottlenecks or barriers?
>> Gary Larson Feda (05:19):
Starting with the, with the hybridization projects obviously
we have invested about 100 million euros and
taking three 30 year old ships and
making them sustainable, by
putting in batteries, replacing engines, doing
hollow modifications to reduce resistance and
thereby reducing fuel consumption and emissions.
(05:39):
And two of the three are now out sailing on the coast.
We see a reduction of close to 23%
of fuel reduction and emission reduction on these
two. And the third one as I'm visiting now in Poland
hopefully is back on the Norwegian coast by the middle of
May. And then, we also
have, as I said, invested in
shore connections, on all our ships so they basically
(06:02):
can be plugged in where there is availability.
and then we now started the. About two years ago
we started the C0 project
where the focus was not
necessarily focusing on what
form of energy source you should use on this
ship, but more so to look at
how can we reduce the energy consumption? Because in
(06:25):
my opinion that's more important because
we can't continue using as much energy
in the industry or in general in the world as we're
doing today, which is currently always increasing if
you want all that energy to be green. So
that's why our main focus with that project was first of
all to look at how we can reduce the energy consumption.
(06:46):
And then when we did a feasibility study, we also saw
that the way we operate on the Norwegian coast
is a very good possibility to look at
electrification because we are
going into 34 different ports in 11 days.
So we have some opportunities that might be more challenging
for a ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean or something. So
(07:06):
that's why we ended up with a project that's
predominantly based on electrification.
>> Birgit Liodden (07:12):
And in a more electrified future per.
Now, I know there is quite a bit of a challenge to
secure enough energy when you land into the
ports. is that a concern for you guys or do you
think that this will get in place both with the standardisation
of plugs and solution, but also the actual
capacity of the grid system?
>> Gary Larson Feda (07:31):
No, that's definitely probably the biggest challenge with
the electrification of a ship like this. We're looking at,
at a battery pack of 74
megawatts that needs quite a humongous
amount of power in those ports that we need to charge. And we
would need to charge five or six ports,
going north and the same going south. And as you said, there's
(07:52):
going to be challenges with the grid, and there's going to be
challenges with getting the infrastructure, also
in the ports. It's going to be costly and I think
that might be the biggest bottleneck
for this project to go live. So
to be realistic, I think looking at
a ship in 2030, it's probably going to be looking
(08:13):
more like a hybrid electrified ship, if
I can say, like a hybrid zero emission ship where
you have also an engine running on
a green fuel that can also charge the
battery. So you're not completely dependent on
the infrastructure on land, because that is by
far the biggest challenge in this project.
>> Birgit Liodden (08:33):
Thank you. And that actually brings us very
naturally into my next question
where I want to have you diving in with me a little bit
in the topic about what we call power
couples. I think power coupling is very
embedded into the Norwegian maritime culture
with the way that we work together in clusters
with small and largest stakeholders representing
(08:56):
the value, chain when we work
to drive innovations. And I wanted to
hear because I know that Hutu and the group
has a long standing tradition for
working in these more dynamic partner,
and multi stakeholder structures. And can you
provide some examples of how the group work
with startups and innovators and also
(09:19):
what you consider as the key benefits when
larger stakeholders team up with the
smaller players?
>> Gary Larson Feda (09:26):
I think if you look at what we are currently working on,
I think we have about 11 stakeholders in
our project and some from big ones to
smaller ones. I think the big benefit is
that when you work closely with these, they get to
understand our needs but at the same
time they are not kind of, how can I
(09:46):
say, constrained by tradition or
constrained by, we always did it this way. They are
very, very open minded, much more open minded than we are.
That's been in the business for a long time. We kind of gotten a little
bit of a tunnel vision just how we operate ships.
And sometimes you really need someone,
you know, energetic, coming from the outside with
(10:07):
a bright mind and just come in and say,
listen, are you sure you can't do this? let's try and,
let's see. And, and I think what we're seeing is some of these
examples on our ships where we're looking at for instance putting
sails on the ships, which is something that wasn't the kind
of, the first thing that struck me. But when you look at
these innovators and you look at the people
(10:27):
that are looking at this and investing in this, we
do see that there is a lot of benefits from that.
and to me it energises me working with these
people because they are so energetic and that kind of
drizzles over to me as well. So it's, it's
and as you said we have a lot of these clusters in Norway.
We are part of some of them, which are great
(10:48):
incubators in innovator places where we,
we can discuss these things and move them forward and
actually, and they are dependent also obviously of having
larger companies support them in their research
and how they pilot their technical
innovations are they can pilot them on board our ships and
try them out and see that things and then
(11:08):
kind of get it more market ready.
>> Birgit Liodden (11:10):
Exactly. And I think that's such a huge amount
of critical gap. When we look at the asset heavy
and hardware infrastructure solutions that
we're working on really scaling towards the
zero emission future then of course the innovators, they
take much longer time to scale and they need to work
much much closer with the market and
(11:31):
with the maritime stakeholders to actually
create solution that has a market
fit in what tends to be quite harsh
conditions as well. And then I wonder if you
can share a bit with me about
unresolved pain points in hurter.
Are there any additional areas that are
(11:51):
within your own operations where you now have set
really high targets and where you have
unresolved commitments to ensure that
you can improve on the sustainability ah, goals
and where you would be interested in partnering up
with innovators and entrepreneurs to power couple
further for even more radical solutions. And I
(12:11):
think you mentioned one topic
already on the access to power but maybe there are
a few other unresolved pain points as well.
>> Gary Larson Feda (12:20):
I think one of the things which is kind of a little bit on the
side or the maritime side, but it's a big part of our
ships is obviously food waste and we have a lot of food waste on
our ships. We have been very good at
getting that amount down year over year. We've done
a lot of various things to get that down. everything from
changing the size of the plates actually which is actually working better than
(12:40):
you would believe. But there is a certain limit to how
low you can get that and that's where you need to start
thinking okay, so what do we do then? So one of the things is
when we went into collaboration with the
Miklivik Gore, like a farm in
northern Norway, figuring out how we can
offload this remains to them. They
compost it and then bring it to the farm. We
(13:03):
grow the vegetables there and then we buy the vegetables back. So it's kind of
a circular solution which then
okay, we found out we can't get rid of all the food waste but at least we
can do something with the food waste that has a
good result which, which this is a good example of
other than that obviously operating the
ships on the coast where we are, I think
(13:23):
there are a, lot more research that can go into
for instance how you regulate
in a more energy efficient way the
climate on board the ship because inside the ship
heating, cooling because we are operating year
round in anything from minus 30
to plus 30. And I don't think there's
been a lot of focus so far in the maritime
(13:46):
industry on insulation on the
superstructure of a ship. There's been a lot of research on that on
land, on houses. They are getting better and better
on this, but that hasn't been the focus. Everything's been
focused on has been below the water,
predominantly on ships to reduce the resistance.
Air drag or aerodynamics
(14:06):
actually has a bigger impact on a ship than you would
believe. So some of these things I think is where we
can really start looking into, go more into depth
and see how we can improve on those areas as well. Because
there's a lot of people looking at what do we do with the painting of the
ships hull, how do we reduce the drag. There's a lot of
things going on, but sometimes we got to look a little bit
(14:27):
outside what we've always been looking at and try and look at some new things that
might have a bigger impact than we believe. And that's some of the things we've seen
for the projects we've been doing as well.
>> Birgit Liodden (14:35):
Absolutely. And then one thing is
to deliver with new vessels. But what
about your current fleet and the optimization
retrofits, or you're looking at carbon capture,
on board the ships. Are there other things that you are really
identifying as core initiatives
to also reduce the energy consumption and the negative
(14:56):
impact of your current fleet?
>> Gary Larson Feda (14:59):
I think there are, obviously we've done on several
ships. As I said, we've done the hybridization where we took down
the emissions with about 23%. I still believe
there are options we can do on those ships. We can
increase the battery packs, the battery technology has
improved quite dramatically over the years since we started that
project. We are looking at how can we use for
(15:19):
instance other types of fuel like methanol on some of the engines
which we are now running a combination of
MGO and advanced biodiesel.
We could use more advanced biodiesel to reduce
the footprint as well on all the engines we have
can run that fuel type. And then
obviously there is one of the things we're getting out from the project
with the C0 project is we are working together
(15:42):
with Technoterm and they've done a study on board one
of our ships how we can reduce the energy consumption of the hotel
operation. And we're seeing some really good results on that
that we can then implement on all our ships. Because
on a passenger ship, at least ours, the energy
consumption from hotel operations is between 30 and 50%
of the total energy Consumption. So there is a lot of
opportunities there in the way we're looking
(16:04):
at having an app controlled for the climate
and everything in your cabin, making the
guests aware by looking at the app how much energy they're
actually using. Because I think it's a lot about awareness.
It's a lot about people being aware that
okay, if I turn that air conditioning on full or if
I, if I'm in the shower for an hour and a half,
this is actually how much energy I'm using. And if you want to
(16:27):
pull that all the way, you can say, then there will be a screen on
board a ship showing m the best 10 cabins this this
last 24 hours on, on the reduction of
using least energy. And then you can have a kind of a.
It's a lot about awareness as well, I think. So
that's just a couple of examples of what we're looking at moving
forward with our assistant fleet. Because there are
(16:48):
benefits to having do modernization
on older ships instead of building new as well.
Because there's a lot of emissions coming from building a ship
which you avoid by modifying a already
existing ship, of course.
>> Birgit Liodden (17:02):
And I mean there is a huge environmental footprint
regardless of how we build. building new is of
course still causing a lot of
emissions. What about the life cycle perspective of
your ships once they end, you know, towards
taking out of operation? do you have specific commitments
on that part on the ship recycling and.
>> Gary Larson Feda (17:21):
Yeah, obviously we are committed to doing that in accordance
with the Hong Kong convention and everything that's come, came out of
that. And obviously now when we're building, looking at
building new, we want to look at that whole life cycle and
we have a work package on that project just for looking
at that. So whatever we bring on board of materials
and everything that we see that this is recyclable or
(17:42):
we can, we can, can be reused or
whatever. So, so we clearly are, have
a, have a plan for that. No, we don't
plan on getting rid of any ships over the next
few days at least. So, so so far we will keep them
running. We've done, we've done quite a bit of investments on them.
So they are quite capable of sailing for a few more years.
So. And then we'll see what we do after that.
>> Birgit Liodden (18:04):
Super. And then, as a last question
that we have, on this podcast with the cruise executives, we,
love to ask you about your perspectives on tomorrow's
talents today because of course there
has been and continues to be a huge
challenge to get Enough people into our industry.
We need really great humans on board with us to
(18:24):
build a future with cruise. And I would like to hear
you have, I mean you've been both sailing
and leading land based operations. Do you have
some specific advice and personal
hacks that you would share with
talents and existing industry colleagues out
there when it comes to specific
mindsets, skill sets that you consider
(18:47):
really key for those who are eager to join
the cruise pioneer movement?
>> Gary Larson Feda (18:52):
You know I've been fortunate. I've been getting ah, the chance
to have a great career and
travelling around the world. I think a lot of what
we are looking for and what's going to be important in the future,
for the future employees or people are going to be
working for us is obviously you need to have a mindset around
sustainability. You need to understand that doesn't matter
(19:12):
which role you're going to be in, it's going to be an integrated
part of you and your job in this company
or in any company moving forward. I think
you know, understanding how
the new systems that are coming, the new technology that's
coming, have an interest in that and
understanding the consequences of the
(19:33):
changes you're doing having in kind
of a little bit more of an. I hope to see if the
marine industry and the maritime industry gets a little bit
more, how can I say, a little bit more
fresher, a little bit more new
thinkers, a little bit different. We ah, we are
for being a very conservative industry, the maritime industry in
(19:54):
general. We kind of need to move a little bit away. I think we're
moving in the right direction. But the nuance that I
bring into my team and people are coming into my team, I want them
to have that new thing. I want them to question why we've been doing things the
way we've been doing it for so many years. I want those
people that questions that and says well why are we doing that? and
there's never a good answer to say because we always done it. That's the worst
(20:15):
answer. So I think
we will be more open, less traditional in
a way of picking the new talent coming
into our company and in the industry in general. I think we need
to look at other areas than what we've been
kind of predominantly looking at
previously. It's like okay, you're a chief engineer,
okay, you have technical background and you can be a vessel
(20:37):
manager on land. today we're looking at
a lot of other things as well in those roles which
I think is ah, is the only way to go to
develop our industry in the right direction.
>> Birgit Liodden (20:49):
Super input. we're also really,
really excited to follow the journey of
moving ahead, and seeing the,
realisation of your, true pioneering
commitments. Thank you so much, Gary, for
joining us today and, for
our audience out there, keep tuned
and follow the next episodes coming up where, where we will
(21:10):
have both MSC cruises and, a number of
other stakeholders leading the way in cruise joining
us. Thank you.
Welcome to the Cruise Pioneers podcast by tool
hosted on Seatrade Trade Cruise Talks
podcasts.
Hello, I'm Birgit Leodon, Sustainability Ambassador
of Seatrade Trade and founder of the Ocean Opportunity Lab.
In this new series we will dive into the pioneering
initiatives of cruise lines and entrepreneurs who
(00:22):
move and change the cruise industry. We focus on
real life frontrunner initiatives and power
couples and enabling crews to move
from pollution to solution. Get on board
our shared expedition as we get behind the
scenes and explore how owners,
founders and top executives move m from
vision to deployment. And with me today from
(00:44):
Gdansk in Poland is Jerry Larson Feda.
The Chief Operating Officer of Hutirutn.
Gary is an energetic and team focused leader
with more than 40 years of experience in the maritime
industry. His experience include commanding
officer and captain positions in the Royal Norwegian
Navy, RCCL and Celebrity. He has
held MD and VP positions with
(01:06):
rccl, Norwegian Hydrographic Services,
Trump's Offshore Supply, Costa and Carnival
Maritime. Now as Chief Operating
Officer in Hutteriten, Gary puts his
efforts into continuous improvements and
sustainability by enhancing his team members
strengths. At Hirschrutten he has
(01:26):
launched the ambitious C0
project to design the first
larger Zero Mission passenger vessel to sail
the magnificent Norwegian coast. Welcome
on board Gary.
>> Gary Larson Feda (01:38):
Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you for having me.
>> Birgit Liodden (01:41):
So I am so excited to have you with us in the studio
today. I would like to start by hearing
about both your company pioneering
commitment but also a bit about your
own personal commitment as a cruise pioneer
with amazing high level targets for a
clean, waste free and nature friendly
(02:02):
operation.
>> Gary Larson Feda (02:03):
Yeah, as you know I think Hurtruten has a long
standing tradition on trying to be in
the forefront of the sustainability journey.
Houthruten started with this quite a few years back
with banning the use of or
stopping the use of heavy fuel oils, banning single use
plastics and getting all ships
equipped with the shore power connectivity. And
(02:25):
then as the last, as you mentioned we are now working on
this last project which is related to coming up with
a Hurtruten ship or a passenger ship that can be
operational on the Norwegian coast by 2030
with zero net zero emissions.
So I think joining Hutterruten
now for a little bit more than four years ago, one
(02:47):
of the drivers for me being in her truth is obviously
the fact that we have a history, we have a long
standing history. We are operating in a very very
sensitive area all the time. We want to
continue doing what we've done for 132 years. For another
132 years. But that also
demands that we do certain things also on
our ships to be
(03:08):
as sustainable as possible, also moving
forward.
>> Birgit Liodden (03:12):
And how did your own personal journey start
through all of your years working in maritime?
Where did the kind of environmental and
sustainability focus trigger happen inside of you?
>> Gary Larson Feda (03:24):
I think it started getting triggered
as we as I worked with other members of the
cruise industry and looking, always looking
at news flashes coming saying Houthruten
is doing this, Houtruten is doing that. And I was always thinking
why didn't we do that? Why is always
Hurtruten the one that's telling me that this can
(03:45):
be done and this can be done. So also through
my previous jobs where when I worked with
the other cruise lines we also had a lot of focus on
environmental programmes in all those
companies and taking that a
step further when joining Hoodruten and
seeing what actually can be done moving forward
(04:06):
on our ships as well. And
one of the first things that I got into when I joined Hootrutten
was actually the project of the hybridization of three of
our ships. Saying that I started my
journey with the maritime industry and with Hootruten
actually when I was 10 years old when I was on board Ms.
Vinland Sol where my dad was the chief officer.
So it's kind of a little bit of the end
(04:29):
of the circle to be back in Hootruten now many
years later.
>> Birgit Liodden (04:33):
Yeah, indeed, full circle.
And of course it's so interesting to look at
the whole sustainability journey of the cruise industry
into a more kind of like competitive edge and the
opportunity for both becoming
more business worthy but also of course attract new
groups of guests and passengers that
(04:54):
normally warrant that into cruise.
And I wonder because of course your ambitions with
your project is immensely high,
can you share a bit about your current project?
what's the work that has been laid down so far? Where
are you ahead of the group's targets? And are
there any areas where you really have experienced
(05:15):
more challenging bottlenecks or barriers?
>> Gary Larson Feda (05:19):
Starting with the, with the hybridization projects obviously
we have invested about 100 million euros and
taking three 30 year old ships and
making them sustainable, by
putting in batteries, replacing engines, doing
hollow modifications to reduce resistance and
thereby reducing fuel consumption and emissions.
(05:39):
And two of the three are now out sailing on the coast.
We see a reduction of close to 23%
of fuel reduction and emission reduction on these
two. And the third one as I'm visiting now in Poland
hopefully is back on the Norwegian coast by the middle of
May. And then, we also
have, as I said, invested in
shore connections, on all our ships so they basically
(06:02):
can be plugged in where there is availability.
and then we now started the. About two years ago
we started the C0 project
where the focus was not
necessarily focusing on what
form of energy source you should use on this
ship, but more so to look at
how can we reduce the energy consumption? Because in
(06:25):
my opinion that's more important because
we can't continue using as much energy
in the industry or in general in the world as we're
doing today, which is currently always increasing if
you want all that energy to be green. So
that's why our main focus with that project was first of
all to look at how we can reduce the energy consumption.
(06:46):
And then when we did a feasibility study, we also saw
that the way we operate on the Norwegian coast
is a very good possibility to look at
electrification because we are
going into 34 different ports in 11 days.
So we have some opportunities that might be more challenging
for a ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean or something. So
(07:06):
that's why we ended up with a project that's
predominantly based on electrification.
>> Birgit Liodden (07:12):
And in a more electrified future per.
Now, I know there is quite a bit of a challenge to
secure enough energy when you land into the
ports. is that a concern for you guys or do you
think that this will get in place both with the standardisation
of plugs and solution, but also the actual
capacity of the grid system?
>> Gary Larson Feda (07:31):
No, that's definitely probably the biggest challenge with
the electrification of a ship like this. We're looking at,
at a battery pack of 74
megawatts that needs quite a humongous
amount of power in those ports that we need to charge. And we
would need to charge five or six ports,
going north and the same going south. And as you said, there's
(07:52):
going to be challenges with the grid, and there's going to be
challenges with getting the infrastructure, also
in the ports. It's going to be costly and I think
that might be the biggest bottleneck
for this project to go live. So
to be realistic, I think looking at
a ship in 2030, it's probably going to be looking
(08:13):
more like a hybrid electrified ship, if
I can say, like a hybrid zero emission ship where
you have also an engine running on
a green fuel that can also charge the
battery. So you're not completely dependent on
the infrastructure on land, because that is by
far the biggest challenge in this project.
>> Birgit Liodden (08:33):
Thank you. And that actually brings us very
naturally into my next question
where I want to have you diving in with me a little bit
in the topic about what we call power
couples. I think power coupling is very
embedded into the Norwegian maritime culture
with the way that we work together in clusters
with small and largest stakeholders representing
(08:56):
the value, chain when we work
to drive innovations. And I wanted to
hear because I know that Hutu and the group
has a long standing tradition for
working in these more dynamic partner,
and multi stakeholder structures. And can you
provide some examples of how the group work
with startups and innovators and also
(09:19):
what you consider as the key benefits when
larger stakeholders team up with the
smaller players?
>> Gary Larson Feda (09:26):
I think if you look at what we are currently working on,
I think we have about 11 stakeholders in
our project and some from big ones to
smaller ones. I think the big benefit is
that when you work closely with these, they get to
understand our needs but at the same
time they are not kind of, how can I
(09:46):
say, constrained by tradition or
constrained by, we always did it this way. They are
very, very open minded, much more open minded than we are.
That's been in the business for a long time. We kind of gotten a little
bit of a tunnel vision just how we operate ships.
And sometimes you really need someone,
you know, energetic, coming from the outside with
(10:07):
a bright mind and just come in and say,
listen, are you sure you can't do this? let's try and,
let's see. And, and I think what we're seeing is some of these
examples on our ships where we're looking at for instance putting
sails on the ships, which is something that wasn't the kind
of, the first thing that struck me. But when you look at
these innovators and you look at the people
(10:27):
that are looking at this and investing in this, we
do see that there is a lot of benefits from that.
and to me it energises me working with these
people because they are so energetic and that kind of
drizzles over to me as well. So it's, it's
and as you said we have a lot of these clusters in Norway.
We are part of some of them, which are great
(10:48):
incubators in innovator places where we,
we can discuss these things and move them forward and
actually, and they are dependent also obviously of having
larger companies support them in their research
and how they pilot their technical
innovations are they can pilot them on board our ships and
try them out and see that things and then
(11:08):
kind of get it more market ready.
>> Birgit Liodden (11:10):
Exactly. And I think that's such a huge amount
of critical gap. When we look at the asset heavy
and hardware infrastructure solutions that
we're working on really scaling towards the
zero emission future then of course the innovators, they
take much longer time to scale and they need to work
much much closer with the market and
(11:31):
with the maritime stakeholders to actually
create solution that has a market
fit in what tends to be quite harsh
conditions as well. And then I wonder if you
can share a bit with me about
unresolved pain points in hurter.
Are there any additional areas that are
(11:51):
within your own operations where you now have set
really high targets and where you have
unresolved commitments to ensure that
you can improve on the sustainability ah, goals
and where you would be interested in partnering up
with innovators and entrepreneurs to power couple
further for even more radical solutions. And I
(12:11):
think you mentioned one topic
already on the access to power but maybe there are
a few other unresolved pain points as well.
>> Gary Larson Feda (12:20):
I think one of the things which is kind of a little bit on the
side or the maritime side, but it's a big part of our
ships is obviously food waste and we have a lot of food waste on
our ships. We have been very good at
getting that amount down year over year. We've done
a lot of various things to get that down. everything from
changing the size of the plates actually which is actually working better than
(12:40):
you would believe. But there is a certain limit to how
low you can get that and that's where you need to start
thinking okay, so what do we do then? So one of the things is
when we went into collaboration with the
Miklivik Gore, like a farm in
northern Norway, figuring out how we can
offload this remains to them. They
compost it and then bring it to the farm. We
(13:03):
grow the vegetables there and then we buy the vegetables back. So it's kind of
a circular solution which then
okay, we found out we can't get rid of all the food waste but at least we
can do something with the food waste that has a
good result which, which this is a good example of
other than that obviously operating the
ships on the coast where we are, I think
(13:23):
there are a, lot more research that can go into
for instance how you regulate
in a more energy efficient way the
climate on board the ship because inside the ship
heating, cooling because we are operating year
round in anything from minus 30
to plus 30. And I don't think there's
been a lot of focus so far in the maritime
(13:46):
industry on insulation on the
superstructure of a ship. There's been a lot of research on that on
land, on houses. They are getting better and better
on this, but that hasn't been the focus. Everything's been
focused on has been below the water,
predominantly on ships to reduce the resistance.
Air drag or aerodynamics
(14:06):
actually has a bigger impact on a ship than you would
believe. So some of these things I think is where we
can really start looking into, go more into depth
and see how we can improve on those areas as well. Because
there's a lot of people looking at what do we do with the painting of the
ships hull, how do we reduce the drag. There's a lot of
things going on, but sometimes we got to look a little bit
(14:27):
outside what we've always been looking at and try and look at some new things that
might have a bigger impact than we believe. And that's some of the things we've seen
for the projects we've been doing as well.
>> Birgit Liodden (14:35):
Absolutely. And then one thing is
to deliver with new vessels. But what
about your current fleet and the optimization
retrofits, or you're looking at carbon capture,
on board the ships. Are there other things that you are really
identifying as core initiatives
to also reduce the energy consumption and the negative
(14:56):
impact of your current fleet?
>> Gary Larson Feda (14:59):
I think there are, obviously we've done on several
ships. As I said, we've done the hybridization where we took down
the emissions with about 23%. I still believe
there are options we can do on those ships. We can
increase the battery packs, the battery technology has
improved quite dramatically over the years since we started that
project. We are looking at how can we use for
(15:19):
instance other types of fuel like methanol on some of the engines
which we are now running a combination of
MGO and advanced biodiesel.
We could use more advanced biodiesel to reduce
the footprint as well on all the engines we have
can run that fuel type. And then
obviously there is one of the things we're getting out from the project
with the C0 project is we are working together
(15:42):
with Technoterm and they've done a study on board one
of our ships how we can reduce the energy consumption of the hotel
operation. And we're seeing some really good results on that
that we can then implement on all our ships. Because
on a passenger ship, at least ours, the energy
consumption from hotel operations is between 30 and 50%
of the total energy Consumption. So there is a lot of
opportunities there in the way we're looking
(16:04):
at having an app controlled for the climate
and everything in your cabin, making the
guests aware by looking at the app how much energy they're
actually using. Because I think it's a lot about awareness.
It's a lot about people being aware that
okay, if I turn that air conditioning on full or if
I, if I'm in the shower for an hour and a half,
this is actually how much energy I'm using. And if you want to
(16:27):
pull that all the way, you can say, then there will be a screen on
board a ship showing m the best 10 cabins this this
last 24 hours on, on the reduction of
using least energy. And then you can have a kind of a.
It's a lot about awareness as well, I think. So
that's just a couple of examples of what we're looking at moving
forward with our assistant fleet. Because there are
(16:48):
benefits to having do modernization
on older ships instead of building new as well.
Because there's a lot of emissions coming from building a ship
which you avoid by modifying a already
existing ship, of course.
>> Birgit Liodden (17:02):
And I mean there is a huge environmental footprint
regardless of how we build. building new is of
course still causing a lot of
emissions. What about the life cycle perspective of
your ships once they end, you know, towards
taking out of operation? do you have specific commitments
on that part on the ship recycling and.
>> Gary Larson Feda (17:21):
Yeah, obviously we are committed to doing that in accordance
with the Hong Kong convention and everything that's come, came out of
that. And obviously now when we're building, looking at
building new, we want to look at that whole life cycle and
we have a work package on that project just for looking
at that. So whatever we bring on board of materials
and everything that we see that this is recyclable or
(17:42):
we can, we can, can be reused or
whatever. So, so we clearly are, have
a, have a plan for that. No, we don't
plan on getting rid of any ships over the next
few days at least. So, so so far we will keep them
running. We've done, we've done quite a bit of investments on them.
So they are quite capable of sailing for a few more years.
So. And then we'll see what we do after that.
>> Birgit Liodden (18:04):
Super. And then, as a last question
that we have, on this podcast with the cruise executives, we,
love to ask you about your perspectives on tomorrow's
talents today because of course there
has been and continues to be a huge
challenge to get Enough people into our industry.
We need really great humans on board with us to
(18:24):
build a future with cruise. And I would like to hear
you have, I mean you've been both sailing
and leading land based operations. Do you have
some specific advice and personal
hacks that you would share with
talents and existing industry colleagues out
there when it comes to specific
mindsets, skill sets that you consider
(18:47):
really key for those who are eager to join
the cruise pioneer movement?
>> Gary Larson Feda (18:52):
You know I've been fortunate. I've been getting ah, the chance
to have a great career and
travelling around the world. I think a lot of what
we are looking for and what's going to be important in the future,
for the future employees or people are going to be
working for us is obviously you need to have a mindset around
sustainability. You need to understand that doesn't matter
(19:12):
which role you're going to be in, it's going to be an integrated
part of you and your job in this company
or in any company moving forward. I think
you know, understanding how
the new systems that are coming, the new technology that's
coming, have an interest in that and
understanding the consequences of the
(19:33):
changes you're doing having in kind
of a little bit more of an. I hope to see if the
marine industry and the maritime industry gets a little bit
more, how can I say, a little bit more
fresher, a little bit more new
thinkers, a little bit different. We ah, we are
for being a very conservative industry, the maritime industry in
(19:54):
general. We kind of need to move a little bit away. I think we're
moving in the right direction. But the nuance that I
bring into my team and people are coming into my team, I want them
to have that new thing. I want them to question why we've been doing things the
way we've been doing it for so many years. I want those
people that questions that and says well why are we doing that? and
there's never a good answer to say because we always done it. That's the worst
(20:15):
answer. So I think
we will be more open, less traditional in
a way of picking the new talent coming
into our company and in the industry in general. I think we need
to look at other areas than what we've been
kind of predominantly looking at
previously. It's like okay, you're a chief engineer,
okay, you have technical background and you can be a vessel
(20:37):
manager on land. today we're looking at
a lot of other things as well in those roles which
I think is ah, is the only way to go to
develop our industry in the right direction.
>> Birgit Liodden (20:49):
Super input. we're also really,
really excited to follow the journey of
moving ahead, and seeing the,
realisation of your, true pioneering
commitments. Thank you so much, Gary, for
joining us today and, for
our audience out there, keep tuned
and follow the next episodes coming up where, where we will
(21:10):
have both MSC cruises and, a number of
other stakeholders leading the way in cruise joining
us. Thank you.
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