Carnival sustainability score: 28/100
Below expectations starts at 31. The highest score on SINK is 71.
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Carnival runs cruise holidays through its cruise lines AIDA Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line, Costa Cruises, Cunard, Holland America Line, P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises and Seabourn. Ticket sales made up 65% of its 2025 revenue and onboard and other spending the other 35%.
More about Carnival
Carnival Corporation was incorporated in Panama in 1974; in May 2026 it moved its legal home to Bermuda as Carnival Corporation Ltd. and took full ownership of Carnival plc, ending the dual listing. It had a team of more than 160,000 ship and shore staff and $26.6 billion revenue in the year to November 2025.
Founded 1974Head office Miami, United StatesStaff more than 160,000 ship and shore team members (fiscal 2025)Revenue ~US$26.6B revenue (US$26,622M, year to 30 November 2025)Website ↗
Carnival's footprint was 17,193,000 tCO2e in its 2025 financial year, the sum of its printed Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 lines (Scope 3 covers June 2024 to May 2025), down from 18,385,000 t the year before. Scope 1, mostly ship fuel, was 9,263,000 t. Almost all its energy comes from fossil marine fuel and LNG, and 74% of its fleet can plug into shore power. Its targets are intensity-only (per berth day) and not SBTi-validated. In 2022 Princess paid a $1 million criminal fine for breaching probation in its federal environmental case, and in 2025 California's air regulator fined it $28,000 over fuel-sulfur limits.
Carnival scores 28/100 (Significant gaps) on SINK's independent climate assessment, scored from public data only. Scores are free. Nobody can pay to change a score, speed it up or hide it. Last verified November 2026.
That places Carnival joint 861st of 1,118 companies scored, and 14th of 23 in Shipping / Logistics.
What is Carnival doing well, and where does it fall short?
Strongest on Carbon Footprint: Operations and Carbon Footprint: Supply Chain (8/10, 6/10). Weakest on Energy Source and Nature & Biodiversity Impact (2/10, 3/10).
Where Carnival lost points
For each question that lost points, the evidence our public rubric looks for that we didn't find.
What would raise this score
- How clean its energy isMove to a renewable energy tariff or make a major efficiency investment.
- Its effect on natureAssess its effect on nature and publish a basic environmental policy.
- Its effect on waterMonitor its water use and take measures to reduce it.
Every question that lost points
- Emissions from its own operations8/10No verified figures published with their method and a falling trend.
- Emissions from its supply chain6/10No full value-chain map or supplier engagement programme.
- Whether its emissions are falling5/10No evidence of a year-on-year fall in its total emissions.
- How clean its energy is2/10No renewable energy tariff or major efficiency investment shown.
- Its effect on nature3/10No assessment of its effect on nature, and no basic environmental policy.
- How it uses materials and handles waste5/10No measurable waste or recycling targets reported publicly.
- Its effect on water3/10No monitoring of water use, or no measures to reduce it.
- Its climate targets3/10No specific targets with dates.
- How openly it reports6/10No annual impact report, or no pay linked to climate targets.
- Its record on controversies4/10Points deducted for controversies or its business model. The finding is under question 10.
A score changes when the evidence does. We use new published evidence at the next rescore. Anyone can send us new evidence, free. How to send it.
How is Carnival's SINK score calculated?
Same ten questions for every company. No private weighting.
SINK = (0.3 × Base + 0.7 × Performance) × ScaleWhat evidence is Carnival's score based on?
10 sources used in this assessment. All publicly available. Each row shows which of the ten questions it informed.
20% of them were published by Carnival itself; the rest come from independent sources.
“Scope 1 Direct GHG emissions MT COe (000s) 9,263 9,680 9,610”
“food and beverage physical units purchased, waste volumes”
“for months refused to provide state regulators with data about a major source of water pollution”
“17 ships reported more than 700 violation days in Alaska in the two-year time frame”
“We fail ships for their use of scrubbers”
“will ultimately bring up to an additional 4 million people a year to the island”
“In 2022, Princess was fined an additional $1 million after pleading guilty to a second violation of probation”
“Carbon emissions for Carnival’s Europe-bound ships totalled 2.55m tonnes last year.”
“The trade group representing the cruise ship industry unsuccessfully pushed international authorities to water down new environmental regulations”
“emitted 43% more sulfur oxides, a group of harmful air pollutants, than all the 291 million cars in Europe in 2022”
If you believe a source has been misread or a newer version exists, submit a challenge.
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How does Carnival compare with other shipping / logistics companies?
Where Carnival sits among shipping / logistics peers.
Among the 23 major shipping / logistics brands we've scored, Carnival sits 14th of 23.
Who scores higher in Shipping / Logistics?
The 3 companies in the sector scoring nearest above Carnival.
La Poste's operational footprint fell 10% in 2025 to 4.95 MtCO2e, against SBTi-validated targets for net zero by 2040.
See the breakdown →Yodel measures carbon intensity but refuses to publish absolute emissions figures despite operating 191 million parcels annually across a fossil-fuel fleet.
See the breakdown →FedEx reports 14.9 Mt of Scope 1 and 2 emissions with EY review-level assurance, but its contracted-transport Scope 3 rose from 6.36 Mt to 6.78 Mt in FY25 while Scope 1 and 2 fell.
See the breakdown →Which companies moved this week, and why.
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