Windstar Cruises Director of Marine Hotel Operations, Kris Thompson Page, updates us on a $18 Million Refurbishment Project and how environmentally-friendly materials are key in Windstar Cruises design.
“As our team continues with selecting materials for Windstar’s fleet refurbishment, I see lots of Green. And in this case, Green is Gorgeous!
Of course I don’t mean we are painting and draping the Wind Surf in various shades of that ‘secondary’ color that results from mixing blue and yellow. By ‘Green,’ I mean we are partnering with numerous vendors that make sustainability and minimizing environmental impact a cornerstone of their business practices. By keeping this value in the center of every design conversation, we have chosen several industry leaders in making beautiful products with a lighter footprint.
Who are they, you may ask? Let me introduce a few. Morgan Furniture, chosen to manufacture the staterooms and suites furniture, is committed to “lean and green manufacturing” while minimizing environmental impact at every stage of the process. No wonder they achieved ISO 14001 certification (an international environmental management system standard) in 2009. Skopos Design Limited, which will supply the fabrics for the upholstery, has received the ‘Carbon Trust Standard,’ a third-party verification of significant reduction in carbon emissions. Amtico, our selected flooring vendor, is not only ISO 14001 certified, but has removed all stabilizers and pigments containing heavy metals, honed practices to reduce their plant’s CO2 emissions by half, and converted to 100 percent recyclable packaging. These are just a few of the excellent businesses we have on board for Windstar’s renovation project.
Meanwhile, our designers and contractors have taken the Green mandate to heart, and our technical plans reflect this same commitment to sustainability. One such example is the conversion to LED (light emitting diode) lighting for the ship’s corridors as well as the bedside reading lights. Unlike incandescent bulbs, LEDs are solid state, have no filament to burn out and replace, contain no mercury or other toxic substances, can last up to 60 times longer than incandescent bulbs and up to 10 times longer than compact fluorescent bulbs, and they use 90 percent less energy than an incandescent lamp.
How else will Windstar ‘Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle?’ Old furniture and materials to be replaced will find new homes in crew quarters, and with local charities, thanks to our shipyard and port agents in Portugal. Our old sails will also be donated and repurposed. The list goes on, as it can and should. After all, striving for ‘continuous improvement’ is a main tenant of environmental stewardship. And the fleet refurbishment project was a perfect opportunity to do just that; getting Green and Gorgeous at the same time! More to come…”
-Kris Thompson Page
Director, Marine Hotel Operations
Continue following along on our blog for updates on our upcoming refurbishments!
