Survey: Passengers interested in paying for reduced emissions – Viking Line offers biofuel

Viking Line has been ranked by Finnish maritime passengers as the most sustainable shipping company in service between Finland and Sweden, for the second time in a row, according to the Passenger Transport Ferries 2023 survey.

Nearly half of those who completed the survey will choose even more climate-smart transport modes in the future, and two thirds are prepared to pay to reduce their environmental impact.

Viking Line’s sustainability index for service between Finland and Sweden is 71.1, while the industry average is 70.1. The index measures customers’ views and perceptions of the actions of shipping companies in terms of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development.

Viking Line reveals that has received the best marks in all parts of the sustainability index: economic, social and environmental sustainability.

The index is part of EPSI Rating’s broad Passenger Transport Survey 2023, for which 928 Finnish maritime passengers were interviewed. The other shipping companies examined in service between Finland and Sweden were FinnLines and Silja Line.

Of the people who responded to the survey, 51% indicate that they take the climate and environmental impact of their travel into account.

Some 46% intend to choose transport modes that are even more climate-smart in the future, while 31% plan to reduce their travel. However, only 3% of respondents plan to replace physical meetings with digital ones.

Dani Lindberg, sustainability manager at Viking Line, notes that “one of our biggest environmental initiatives this year is that we offer our passengers and will soon offer our cargo customers the chance to purchase biofuel to offset the fuel used on their trip. When a passenger booking a trip chooses biofuel, greenhouse gas emissions from their journey are reduced by as much as 90 per cent compared to the other fuels that our vessels use.”

“A full 68 per cent of those who completed the EPSI survey indicated that they are prepared to pay for reduced emissions. On a cruise between Turku and Stockholm, the biogas supplement per passenger is scarcely five euros, so we think this new option will satisfy our customers’ wishes really well,” Lindberg added.

Other areas explored in the Passenger Transport 2023 survey are customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. In service between Finland and Sweden, Viking Line has both the most satisfied and the most loyal customers.