Episode 9
Cruise Pioneers | Toward Zero-Emission Cruising Along the Norwegian Coast
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.
Transcript
>> Birgit Liodden: Welcome to the Cruise Pioneers podcast by tool
Speaker:hosted on Seatrade Trade Cruise Talks
Speaker:podcasts.
Speaker:Hello, I'm Birgit Leodon, Sustainability Ambassador
Speaker:of Seatrade Trade and founder of the Ocean Opportunity Lab.
Speaker:In this new series we will dive into the pioneering
Speaker:initiatives of cruise lines and entrepreneurs who
Speaker:move and change the cruise industry. We focus on
Speaker:real life frontrunner initiatives and power
Speaker:couples and enabling crews to move
Speaker:from pollution to solution. Get on board
Speaker:our shared expedition as we get behind the
Speaker:scenes and explore how owners,
Speaker:founders and top executives move m from
Speaker:vision to deployment. And with me today from
Speaker:Gdansk in Poland is Jerry Larson Feda.
Speaker:The Chief Operating Officer of Hutirutn.
Speaker:Gary is an energetic and team focused leader
Speaker:with more than 40 years of experience in the maritime
Speaker:industry. His experience include commanding
Speaker:officer and captain positions in the Royal Norwegian
Speaker:Navy, RCCL and Celebrity. He has
Speaker:held MD and VP positions with
Speaker:rccl, Norwegian Hydrographic Services,
Speaker:Trump's Offshore Supply, Costa and Carnival
Speaker:Maritime. Now as Chief Operating
Speaker:Officer in Hutteriten, Gary puts his
Speaker:efforts into continuous improvements and
Speaker:sustainability by enhancing his team members
Speaker:strengths. At Hirschrutten he has
Speaker:launched the ambitious C0
Speaker:project to design the first
Speaker:larger Zero Mission passenger vessel to sail
Speaker:the magnificent Norwegian coast. Welcome
Speaker:on board Gary.
Speaker:>> Gary Larson Feda: Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker:>> Birgit Liodden: So I am so excited to have you with us in the studio
Speaker:today. I would like to start by hearing
Speaker:about both your company pioneering
Speaker:commitment but also a bit about your
Speaker:own personal commitment as a cruise pioneer
Speaker:with amazing high level targets for a
Speaker:clean, waste free and nature friendly
Speaker:operation.
Speaker:>> Gary Larson Feda: Yeah, as you know I think Hurtruten has a long
Speaker:standing tradition on trying to be in
Speaker:the forefront of the sustainability journey.
Speaker:Houthruten started with this quite a few years back
Speaker:with banning the use of or
Speaker:stopping the use of heavy fuel oils, banning single use
Speaker:plastics and getting all ships
Speaker:equipped with the shore power connectivity. And
Speaker:then as the last, as you mentioned we are now working on
Speaker:this last project which is related to coming up with
Speaker:a Hurtruten ship or a passenger ship that can be
Speaker:operational on the Norwegian coast by 2030
Speaker:with zero net zero emissions.
Speaker:So I think joining Hutterruten
Speaker:now for a little bit more than four years ago, one
Speaker:of the drivers for me being in her truth is obviously
Speaker:the fact that we have a history, we have a long
Speaker:standing history. We are operating in a very very
Speaker:sensitive area all the time. We want to
Speaker:continue doing what we've done for 132 years. For another
Speaker:132 years. But that also
Speaker:demands that we do certain things also on
Speaker:our ships to be
Speaker:as sustainable as possible, also moving
Speaker:forward.
Speaker:>> Birgit Liodden: And how did your own personal journey start
Speaker:through all of your years working in maritime?
Speaker:Where did the kind of environmental and
Speaker:sustainability focus trigger happen inside of you?
Speaker:>> Gary Larson Feda: I think it started getting triggered
Speaker:as we as I worked with other members of the
Speaker:cruise industry and looking, always looking
Speaker:at news flashes coming saying Houthruten
Speaker:is doing this, Houtruten is doing that. And I was always thinking
Speaker:why didn't we do that? Why is always
Speaker:Hurtruten the one that's telling me that this can
Speaker:be done and this can be done. So also through
Speaker:my previous jobs where when I worked with
Speaker:the other cruise lines we also had a lot of focus on
Speaker:environmental programmes in all those
Speaker:companies and taking that a
Speaker:step further when joining Hoodruten and
Speaker:seeing what actually can be done moving forward
Speaker:on our ships as well. And
Speaker:one of the first things that I got into when I joined Hootrutten
Speaker:was actually the project of the hybridization of three of
Speaker:our ships. Saying that I started my
Speaker:journey with the maritime industry and with Hootruten
Speaker:actually when I was 10 years old when I was on board Ms.
Speaker:Vinland Sol where my dad was the chief officer.
Speaker:So it's kind of a little bit of the end
Speaker:of the circle to be back in Hootruten now many
Speaker:years later.
Speaker:>> Birgit Liodden: Yeah, indeed, full circle.
Speaker:And of course it's so interesting to look at
Speaker:the whole sustainability journey of the cruise industry
Speaker:into a more kind of like competitive edge and the
Speaker:opportunity for both becoming
Speaker:more business worthy but also of course attract new
Speaker:groups of guests and passengers that
Speaker:normally warrant that into cruise.
Speaker:And I wonder because of course your ambitions with
Speaker:your project is immensely high,
Speaker:can you share a bit about your current project?
Speaker:what's the work that has been laid down so far? Where
Speaker:are you ahead of the group's targets? And are
Speaker:there any areas where you really have experienced
Speaker:more challenging bottlenecks or barriers?
Speaker:>> Gary Larson Feda: Starting with the, with the hybridization projects obviously
Speaker:we have invested about 100 million euros and
Speaker:taking three 30 year old ships and
Speaker:making them sustainable, by
Speaker:putting in batteries, replacing engines, doing
Speaker:hollow modifications to reduce resistance and
Speaker:thereby reducing fuel consumption and emissions.
Speaker:And two of the three are now out sailing on the coast.
Speaker:We see a reduction of close to 23%
Speaker:of fuel reduction and emission reduction on these
Speaker:two. And the third one as I'm visiting now in Poland
Speaker:hopefully is back on the Norwegian coast by the middle of
Speaker:May. And then, we also
Speaker:have, as I said, invested in
Speaker:shore connections, on all our ships so they basically
Speaker:can be plugged in where there is availability.
Speaker:and then we now started the. About two years ago
Speaker:we started the C0 project
Speaker:where the focus was not
Speaker:necessarily focusing on what
Speaker:form of energy source you should use on this
Speaker:ship, but more so to look at
Speaker:how can we reduce the energy consumption? Because in
Speaker:my opinion that's more important because
Speaker:we can't continue using as much energy
Speaker:in the industry or in general in the world as we're
Speaker:doing today, which is currently always increasing if
Speaker:you want all that energy to be green. So
Speaker:that's why our main focus with that project was first of
Speaker:all to look at how we can reduce the energy consumption.
Speaker:And then when we did a feasibility study, we also saw
Speaker:that the way we operate on the Norwegian coast
Speaker:is a very good possibility to look at
Speaker:electrification because we are
Speaker:going into 34 different ports in 11 days.
Speaker:So we have some opportunities that might be more challenging
Speaker:for a ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean or something. So
Speaker:that's why we ended up with a project that's
Speaker:predominantly based on electrification.
Speaker:>> Birgit Liodden: And in a more electrified future per.
Speaker:Now, I know there is quite a bit of a challenge to
Speaker:secure enough energy when you land into the
Speaker:ports. is that a concern for you guys or do you
Speaker:think that this will get in place both with the standardisation
Speaker:of plugs and solution, but also the actual
Speaker:capacity of the grid system?
Speaker:>> Gary Larson Feda: No, that's definitely probably the biggest challenge with
Speaker:the electrification of a ship like this. We're looking at,
Speaker:at a battery pack of 74
Speaker:megawatts that needs quite a humongous
Speaker:amount of power in those ports that we need to charge. And we
Speaker:would need to charge five or six ports,
Speaker:going north and the same going south. And as you said, there's
Speaker:going to be challenges with the grid, and there's going to be
Speaker:challenges with getting the infrastructure, also
Speaker:in the ports. It's going to be costly and I think
Speaker:that might be the biggest bottleneck
Speaker:for this project to go live. So
Speaker:to be realistic, I think looking at
Speaker:a ship in 2030, it's probably going to be looking
Speaker:more like a hybrid electrified ship, if
Speaker:I can say, like a hybrid zero emission ship where
Speaker:you have also an engine running on
Speaker:a green fuel that can also charge the
Speaker:battery. So you're not completely dependent on
Speaker:the infrastructure on land, because that is by
Speaker:far the biggest challenge in this project.
Speaker:>> Birgit Liodden: Thank you. And that actually brings us very
Speaker:naturally into my next question
Speaker:where I want to have you diving in with me a little bit
Speaker:in the topic about what we call power
Speaker:couples. I think power coupling is very
Speaker:embedded into the Norwegian maritime culture
Speaker:with the way that we work together in clusters
Speaker:with small and largest stakeholders representing
Speaker:the value, chain when we work
Speaker:to drive innovations. And I wanted to
Speaker:hear because I know that Hutu and the group
Speaker:has a long standing tradition for
Speaker:working in these more dynamic partner,
Speaker:and multi stakeholder structures. And can you
Speaker:provide some examples of how the group work
Speaker:with startups and innovators and also
Speaker:what you consider as the key benefits when
Speaker:larger stakeholders team up with the
Speaker:smaller players?
Speaker:>> Gary Larson Feda: I think if you look at what we are currently working on,
Speaker:I think we have about 11 stakeholders in
Speaker:our project and some from big ones to
Speaker:smaller ones. I think the big benefit is
Speaker:that when you work closely with these, they get to
Speaker:understand our needs but at the same
Speaker:time they are not kind of, how can I
Speaker:say, constrained by tradition or
Speaker:constrained by, we always did it this way. They are
Speaker:very, very open minded, much more open minded than we are.
Speaker:That's been in the business for a long time. We kind of gotten a little
Speaker:bit of a tunnel vision just how we operate ships.
Speaker:And sometimes you really need someone,
Speaker:you know, energetic, coming from the outside with
Speaker:a bright mind and just come in and say,
Speaker:listen, are you sure you can't do this? let's try and,
Speaker:let's see. And, and I think what we're seeing is some of these
Speaker:examples on our ships where we're looking at for instance putting
Speaker:sails on the ships, which is something that wasn't the kind
Speaker:of, the first thing that struck me. But when you look at
Speaker:these innovators and you look at the people
Speaker:that are looking at this and investing in this, we
Speaker:do see that there is a lot of benefits from that.
Speaker:and to me it energises me working with these
Speaker:people because they are so energetic and that kind of
Speaker:drizzles over to me as well. So it's, it's
Speaker:and as you said we have a lot of these clusters in Norway.
Speaker:We are part of some of them, which are great
Speaker:incubators in innovator places where we,
Speaker:we can discuss these things and move them forward and
Speaker:actually, and they are dependent also obviously of having
Speaker:larger companies support them in their research
Speaker:and how they pilot their technical
Speaker:innovations are they can pilot them on board our ships and
Speaker:try them out and see that things and then
Speaker:kind of get it more market ready.
Speaker:>> Birgit Liodden: Exactly. And I think that's such a huge amount
Speaker:of critical gap. When we look at the asset heavy
Speaker:and hardware infrastructure solutions that
Speaker:we're working on really scaling towards the
Speaker:zero emission future then of course the innovators, they
Speaker:take much longer time to scale and they need to work
Speaker:much much closer with the market and
Speaker:with the maritime stakeholders to actually
Speaker:create solution that has a market
Speaker:fit in what tends to be quite harsh
Speaker:conditions as well. And then I wonder if you
Speaker:can share a bit with me about
Speaker:unresolved pain points in hurter.
Speaker:Are there any additional areas that are
Speaker:within your own operations where you now have set
Speaker:really high targets and where you have
Speaker:unresolved commitments to ensure that
Speaker:you can improve on the sustainability ah, goals
Speaker:and where you would be interested in partnering up
Speaker:with innovators and entrepreneurs to power couple
Speaker:further for even more radical solutions. And I
Speaker:think you mentioned one topic
Speaker:already on the access to power but maybe there are
Speaker:a few other unresolved pain points as well.
Speaker:>> Gary Larson Feda: I think one of the things which is kind of a little bit on the
Speaker:side or the maritime side, but it's a big part of our
Speaker:ships is obviously food waste and we have a lot of food waste on
Speaker:our ships. We have been very good at
Speaker:getting that amount down year over year. We've done
Speaker:a lot of various things to get that down. everything from
Speaker:changing the size of the plates actually which is actually working better than
Speaker:you would believe. But there is a certain limit to how
Speaker:low you can get that and that's where you need to start
Speaker:thinking okay, so what do we do then? So one of the things is
Speaker:when we went into collaboration with the
Speaker:Miklivik Gore, like a farm in
Speaker:northern Norway, figuring out how we can
Speaker:offload this remains to them. They
Speaker:compost it and then bring it to the farm. We
Speaker:grow the vegetables there and then we buy the vegetables back. So it's kind of
Speaker:a circular solution which then
Speaker:okay, we found out we can't get rid of all the food waste but at least we
Speaker:can do something with the food waste that has a
Speaker:good result which, which this is a good example of
Speaker:other than that obviously operating the
Speaker:ships on the coast where we are, I think
Speaker:there are a, lot more research that can go into
Speaker:for instance how you regulate
Speaker:in a more energy efficient way the
Speaker:climate on board the ship because inside the ship
Speaker:heating, cooling because we are operating year
Speaker:round in anything from minus 30
Speaker:to plus 30. And I don't think there's
Speaker:been a lot of focus so far in the maritime
Speaker:industry on insulation on the
Speaker:superstructure of a ship. There's been a lot of research on that on
Speaker:land, on houses. They are getting better and better
Speaker:on this, but that hasn't been the focus. Everything's been
Speaker:focused on has been below the water,
Speaker:predominantly on ships to reduce the resistance.
Speaker:Air drag or aerodynamics
Speaker:actually has a bigger impact on a ship than you would
Speaker:believe. So some of these things I think is where we
Speaker:can really start looking into, go more into depth
Speaker:and see how we can improve on those areas as well. Because
Speaker:there's a lot of people looking at what do we do with the painting of the
Speaker:ships hull, how do we reduce the drag. There's a lot of
Speaker:things going on, but sometimes we got to look a little bit
Speaker:outside what we've always been looking at and try and look at some new things that
Speaker:might have a bigger impact than we believe. And that's some of the things we've seen
Speaker:for the projects we've been doing as well.
Speaker:>> Birgit Liodden: Absolutely. And then one thing is
Speaker:to deliver with new vessels. But what
Speaker:about your current fleet and the optimization
Speaker:retrofits, or you're looking at carbon capture,
Speaker:on board the ships. Are there other things that you are really
Speaker:identifying as core initiatives
Speaker:to also reduce the energy consumption and the negative
Speaker:impact of your current fleet?
Speaker:>> Gary Larson Feda: I think there are, obviously we've done on several
Speaker:ships. As I said, we've done the hybridization where we took down
Speaker:the emissions with about 23%. I still believe
Speaker:there are options we can do on those ships. We can
Speaker:increase the battery packs, the battery technology has
Speaker:improved quite dramatically over the years since we started that
Speaker:project. We are looking at how can we use for
Speaker:instance other types of fuel like methanol on some of the engines
Speaker:which we are now running a combination of
Speaker:MGO and advanced biodiesel.
Speaker:We could use more advanced biodiesel to reduce
Speaker:the footprint as well on all the engines we have
Speaker:can run that fuel type. And then
Speaker:obviously there is one of the things we're getting out from the project
Speaker:with the C0 project is we are working together
Speaker:with Technoterm and they've done a study on board one
Speaker:of our ships how we can reduce the energy consumption of the hotel
Speaker:operation. And we're seeing some really good results on that
Speaker:that we can then implement on all our ships. Because
Speaker:on a passenger ship, at least ours, the energy
Speaker:consumption from hotel operations is between 30 and 50%
Speaker:of the total energy Consumption. So there is a lot of
Speaker:opportunities there in the way we're looking
Speaker:at having an app controlled for the climate
Speaker:and everything in your cabin, making the
Speaker:guests aware by looking at the app how much energy they're
Speaker:actually using. Because I think it's a lot about awareness.
Speaker:It's a lot about people being aware that
Speaker:okay, if I turn that air conditioning on full or if
Speaker:I, if I'm in the shower for an hour and a half,
Speaker:this is actually how much energy I'm using. And if you want to
Speaker:pull that all the way, you can say, then there will be a screen on
Speaker:board a ship showing m the best 10 cabins this this
Speaker:last 24 hours on, on the reduction of
Speaker:using least energy. And then you can have a kind of a.
Speaker:It's a lot about awareness as well, I think. So
Speaker:that's just a couple of examples of what we're looking at moving
Speaker:forward with our assistant fleet. Because there are
Speaker:benefits to having do modernization
Speaker:on older ships instead of building new as well.
Speaker:Because there's a lot of emissions coming from building a ship
Speaker:which you avoid by modifying a already
Speaker:existing ship, of course.
Speaker:>> Birgit Liodden: And I mean there is a huge environmental footprint
Speaker:regardless of how we build. building new is of
Speaker:course still causing a lot of
Speaker:emissions. What about the life cycle perspective of
Speaker:your ships once they end, you know, towards
Speaker:taking out of operation? do you have specific commitments
Speaker:on that part on the ship recycling and.
Speaker:>> Gary Larson Feda: Yeah, obviously we are committed to doing that in accordance
Speaker:with the Hong Kong convention and everything that's come, came out of
Speaker:that. And obviously now when we're building, looking at
Speaker:building new, we want to look at that whole life cycle and
Speaker:we have a work package on that project just for looking
Speaker:at that. So whatever we bring on board of materials
Speaker:and everything that we see that this is recyclable or
Speaker:we can, we can, can be reused or
Speaker:whatever. So, so we clearly are, have
Speaker:a, have a plan for that. No, we don't
Speaker:plan on getting rid of any ships over the next
Speaker:few days at least. So, so so far we will keep them
Speaker:running. We've done, we've done quite a bit of investments on them.
Speaker:So they are quite capable of sailing for a few more years.
Speaker:So. And then we'll see what we do after that.
Speaker:>> Birgit Liodden: Super. And then, as a last question
Speaker:that we have, on this podcast with the cruise executives, we,
Speaker:love to ask you about your perspectives on tomorrow's
Speaker:talents today because of course there
Speaker:has been and continues to be a huge
Speaker:challenge to get Enough people into our industry.
Speaker:We need really great humans on board with us to
Speaker:build a future with cruise. And I would like to hear
Speaker:you have, I mean you've been both sailing
Speaker:and leading land based operations. Do you have
Speaker:some specific advice and personal
Speaker:hacks that you would share with
Speaker:talents and existing industry colleagues out
Speaker:there when it comes to specific
Speaker:mindsets, skill sets that you consider
Speaker:really key for those who are eager to join
Speaker:the cruise pioneer movement?
Speaker:>> Gary Larson Feda: You know I've been fortunate. I've been getting ah, the chance
Speaker:to have a great career and
Speaker:travelling around the world. I think a lot of what
Speaker:we are looking for and what's going to be important in the future,
Speaker:for the future employees or people are going to be
Speaker:working for us is obviously you need to have a mindset around
Speaker:sustainability. You need to understand that doesn't matter
Speaker:which role you're going to be in, it's going to be an integrated
Speaker:part of you and your job in this company
Speaker:or in any company moving forward. I think
Speaker:you know, understanding how
Speaker:the new systems that are coming, the new technology that's
Speaker:coming, have an interest in that and
Speaker:understanding the consequences of the
Speaker:changes you're doing having in kind
Speaker:of a little bit more of an. I hope to see if the
Speaker:marine industry and the maritime industry gets a little bit
Speaker:more, how can I say, a little bit more
Speaker:fresher, a little bit more new
Speaker:thinkers, a little bit different. We ah, we are
Speaker:for being a very conservative industry, the maritime industry in
Speaker:general. We kind of need to move a little bit away. I think we're
Speaker:moving in the right direction. But the nuance that I
Speaker:bring into my team and people are coming into my team, I want them
Speaker:to have that new thing. I want them to question why we've been doing things the
Speaker:way we've been doing it for so many years. I want those
Speaker:people that questions that and says well why are we doing that? and
Speaker:there's never a good answer to say because we always done it. That's the worst
Speaker:answer. So I think
Speaker:we will be more open, less traditional in
Speaker:a way of picking the new talent coming
Speaker:into our company and in the industry in general. I think we need
Speaker:to look at other areas than what we've been
Speaker:kind of predominantly looking at
Speaker:previously. It's like okay, you're a chief engineer,
Speaker:okay, you have technical background and you can be a vessel
Speaker:manager on land. today we're looking at
Speaker:a lot of other things as well in those roles which
Speaker:I think is ah, is the only way to go to
Speaker:develop our industry in the right direction.
Speaker:>> Birgit Liodden: Super input. we're also really,
Speaker:really excited to follow the journey of
Speaker:moving ahead, and seeing the,
Speaker:realisation of your, true pioneering
Speaker:commitments. Thank you so much, Gary, for
Speaker:joining us today and, for
Speaker:our audience out there, keep tuned
Speaker:and follow the next episodes coming up where, where we will
Speaker:have both MSC cruises and, a number of
Speaker:other stakeholders leading the way in cruise joining
Speaker:us. Thank you.
