Menu

Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

E-Flexer Fleet Renewal Steers Brittany Ferries to Fourth Consecutive Green Marine Award

18th October 2023
Brittany Ferries has three E-Flexer series ships in service so far, among them the Eco-friendly Salamanca as seen at Bilbao. The port in northern Spain is also the location of a brand-new LNG (liquefied natural gas) bunkering terminal, which is already fuelling their newest LNG-powered ships.
Brittany Ferries has three E-Flexer series ships in service so far, among them the Eco-friendly Salamanca as seen at Bilbao. The port in northern Spain is also the location of a brand-new LNG (liquefied natural gas) bunkering terminal, which is already fuelling their newest LNG-powered ships. Credit: Brittany Ferries

Operator Brittany Ferries is proud to have been awarded the 'Green Marine Certified Shipowner' accreditation for the fourth year in a row.

The accolade to the Breton based company was presented during a ceremony held this week in Bilbao, the port in northern Spain which is conveniently serviced by Brittany Ferries' eco-friendly vessel, Salamanca. Afloat adds the E-Flexer series ship operates direct routes from Rosslare Europort including crossings currently to Cherbourg. 

Bilbao is also the location of a brand-new LNG (liquefied natural gas) bunkering terminal, which is already fuelling Brittany Ferries' newest LNG-powered ships. 

For Brittany Ferries, fleet renewal has been key to its progress. It is currently in the middle of the largest investment in ship replacement in its 50-year history. Between 2019 and 2025 five new vessels will have joined the fleet, replacing older and less environmentally friendly ships.

Four of these new vessels will be powered by cleaner liquefied natural gas (LNG) and two will be LNG-electric hybrids (arriving in spring 2025). Both hybrids will be shore-power ready, meaning zero emissions when they are able to plug-in quayside.

“We are really pleased that investment in fleet renewal is delivering progress on many Green Marine criteria for Brittany Ferries and will continue to do so in the years ahead,” said Brittany Ferries head of Sustainability Vincent Coquen, who was also the driving force behind the company’s commitment to the Green Marine programme. “For example this year we have been able to demonstrate a fleet-wide reduction in harmful nitrogen dioxide (NOx) emissions*, achieving the highest level 5 for this criteria.”

Mr Coquen continued, “Of course, Brittany Ferries is not just focusing on emissions reduction on its voyage to a more sustainable future. For example, next year the company hopes to demonstrate an improvement in oily water management, making the step up from 2 to 3 on the Green Marine ladder. Challenging as it may be, our entire technical team are determined to make it five years in a row when the next round of awards are made in 2024.”

Brittany Ferries was one of the founding signatories of the Green Marine programme. It originally chose Green Marine because of its rigour, independence and demand for continuous improvement.

Shipping companies sign up to eight sustainability criteria, focusing on areas including air and water quality, the protection of biodiversity and waste management. They are independently assessed each year on progress, via a scale of 1-5. Only those that are able to demonstrate a step up the scale on at least one criteria, continue to receive the award.

Published in Brittany Ferries
Jehan Ashmore

About The Author

Jehan Ashmore

Email The Author

Jehan Ashmore is a marine correspondent, researcher and photographer, specialising in Irish ports, shipping and the ferry sector serving the UK and directly to mainland Europe. Jehan also occasionally writes a column, 'Maritime' Dalkey for the (Dalkey Community Council Newsletter) in addition to contributing to UK marine periodicals. 

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven't put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full-time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.

Direct Donation to Afloat button

About Brittany Ferries

In 1967 a farmer from Finistère in Brittany, Alexis Gourvennec, succeeded in bringing together a variety of organisations from the region to embark on an ambitious project: the aim was to open up the region, to improve its infrastructure and to enrich its people by turning to traditional partners such as Ireland and the UK. In 1972 BAI (Brittany-England-Ireland) was born.

The first cross-Channel link was inaugurated in January 1973, when a converted Israeli tank-carrier called Kerisnel left the port of Roscoff for Plymouth carrying trucks loaded with Breton vegetables such as cauliflowers and artichokes. The story, therefore, begins on 2 January 1973, 24 hours after Great Britain's entry into the Common Market (EEC).

From these humble beginnings however, Brittany Ferries as the company was re-named quickly opened up to passenger transport, then became a tour operator.

Today, Brittany Ferries has established itself as the national leader in French maritime transport: an atypical leader, under private ownership, still owned by a Breton agricultural cooperative.

Eighty five percent of the company’s passengers are British.

Key Brittany Ferries figures:

  • Turnover: €202.4 million (compared with €469m in 2019)
  • Investment in three new ships, Galicia plus two new vessels powered by cleaner LNG (liquefied natural gas) arriving in 2022 and 2023
  • Employment: 2,474 seafarers and shore staff (average high/low season)
  • Passengers: 752,102 in 2020 (compared with 2,498,354 in 2019)
  • Freight: 160,377 in 2020 (compared with 201,554 in 2019)
  • Twelve ships operating services that connect France, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Spain (non-Covid year) across 14 routes
  • Twelve ports in total: Bilbao, Santander, Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth, Cork, Rosslare, Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Saint-Malo, Roscoff
  • Tourism in Europe: 231,000 unique visitors, staying 2.6 million bed-nights in France in 2020 (compared with 857,000 unique visitors, staying 8,7 million bed-nights in 2019).