Our environmental commitment

We are committed to supporting the Scottish Government’s aims for a greener Scotland. We want to be at the forefront of this revolution, doing our bit to tackle pollution and climate change. It’s our commitment to minimise impact on the unique marine environments in which we operate and, wherever possible, enhance biodiversity and the quality of the natural environment for future generations.

Meeting legislative requirements

We are subject to both terrestrial and marine environmental legislation and strive to go beyond minimum compliance at every opportunity.

We operate under the requirements of our ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management System which identifies and mitigates the environmental risk of our operations. Our environmental performance is managed by our Environmental Compliance Specialist with support from teams across our organisation.

 

Investing in a greener future

We believe we must lead the way in reducing emissions and bringing environmental sustainability into everything we do. This starts by investing in greener vessels that use fuel more efficiently and help us be kinder to the environment as we connect Scotland’s island communities.

We have three vessels in our fleet with the ability to combine diesel electric and lithium-ion battery power. This reduces fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by at least 20%.

Over the next five years, we will welcome six major and 10 small vessels into our network which will be more sustainable and efficient than much of our current fleet.

Our first seven new smaller vessels will take zero-emission travel from concept to reality, with the ability to operate solely on battery power during daytime operations. Overnight recharging will be facilitated through strategically located shore charging stations at ports such as Colintraive, Raasay and Fionnphort.

Two new large vessels, MVs Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa, use Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) which will reduce harmful emissions. We’re working closely with Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited, responsible for building and procuring our vessels, to ensure the appropriate infrastructure is in place to make LNG available when these vessels come into service.

The four new Islay and Little Minch vessels being built represent a significant advancement in our commitment to sustainability. These vessels will use Marine Gas Oil (MGO) and diesel-electrical propulsion, have optimised hull designs engineered for lower emissions, and are capable of being retrofitted with alternative fuels.

Early data indicates the new Islay and Little Minch vessels will lead to a 31% reduction in CO2 emissions and a 28% reduction in daily energy requirements compared to one of the large vessels in our current fleet, MV Finlaggan. Replacing MV Finlaggan alone will relate to taking 2,200 cars off the road.

 

Supporting local businesses

Providing customers with high quality, localised products is a major part of our retail strategy. Our retail purpose states that we work with local businesses to showcase what our region has to offer.

We’re attuned to the rapidly increasing consumer demand for locally and ethically sourced products, and we’ve forged relationships with 44 suppliers across our network.

Find out more about our work with local suppliers

 

Download our Biodiversity Duty Report 2021 - 2023

25 Jan 2024

Biodiversity Duty Report 2021 - 2023

PDF | 162.091kb

Biodiversity Duty Report 2021 - 2023 (accessible version)

Contact us

If you have any questions related to sustainability, you can contact our Environmental Compliance Specialist by email.

Latest updates

We’re excited to share the details of our various programmes, outreach and initiatives through our environmental blog.

Check out our blog