This is Hurtigruten part five: an original coastal voyage, told across five ATTA News Stories, exploring Hurtigruten's leadership, evolution, and collaboration with ATTA in the adventure travel trade. Published in collaboration with the Adventure Travel Trade Association.
Carly Biggart left Hurtigruten after this interview series was conducted. In this fifth and final story, Hurtigruten looks ahead. Not with broad ambition, but with the specificity of a company that has already demonstrated what it means to operate with intention, and is now focused on what comes next.
Over the course of this series, Hurtigruten's story has moved from identity to impact to partnership. The brand split clarification that gave the trade a sharper product to sell. The principles that guided the company through industry-wide pressure. The independently measured data that turned sustainability claims into defensible evidence. The relationships, local and global, that shape how the operation actually functions day to day. Taken together, those four chapters describe a company that has spent recent years consolidating and proving. The fifth chapter is about what it builds from here.
"Responsible travel is not just a trend, it's the future," says Carly Biggart, former Head of Hurtigruten Americas. "And we are here to both lead and embrace environmental stewardship. We recently made the first climate-neutral biofuel sailing, which proves we, as an industry, can get there, and we care enough to take the steps."
That sailing, completed by MS Richard With on the full Bergen to Kirkenes route, ran entirely on HVO100, an advanced biofuel produced from renewable waste materials, connecting to shore power at available ports along the way. It was not a demonstration voyage on a modified test vessel; it was a full-service sailing on an existing ship, covering more than 5,000 kilometers of active coastline in normal operation. The significance for the trade is precisely that ordinariness. A proof-of-concept delivered on a regular sailing, with paying guests, across an active working route, tells you something more useful: that the technology is reliable, that the operation is scalable, and that when Hurtigruten describes its sustainability commitments, it is describing something that has already happened rather than something it hopes to achieve. For advisors fielding client questions about greenwashing, that distinction is the whole conversation.
Progress That Is Already on the Books
The biofuel sailing sits on top of a decade of incremental fleet investment that has produced measurable results. Scope 1 CO2 emissions per guest are down 18 percent compared to 2018, and down a further 9 percent versus 2023 alone. Total Scope 1 CO2 across the fleet has been reduced by nearly 30 percent against the 2018 baseline. NOx emissions are down more than 69 percent over the same period. These figures matter for the forward-looking story because they establish that the ambition behind Sea Zero, Hurtigruten's zero-emission ship targeting operation by around 2030, is not detached from operational reality. It is the next step on a trajectory that is already in motion.
"Innovation gives sustainability momentum," Biggart explains. "Many of the choices that improve efficiency, reduce impact, or enhance guest understanding also improve operations and experience quality. Sustainability provides the direction, while innovation provides the tools. When the two are aligned, progress becomes practical rather than aspirational."
The Sea Zero program embodies that alignment at its most ambitious. The Research & Development (R & D) consortium behind it includes SINTEF, Norway's leading industrial research foundation, alongside 12 maritime industry partners, with a total budget of approximately 13 million euros, including 7 million euros in public funding.The design targets a 40 to 50 percent reduction in total energy demand compared to current ships, achieved through a combination of retractable sails, air-lubrication, contra-rotating propellers, large battery packs, and an AI-supported bridge that optimizes route and energy use in real time. The scale of that ambition is easier to grasp against one figure: only around 0.1 percent of vessels globally currently operate with zero-emission technology. When Sea Zero delivers, Hurtigruten will not just have built a cleaner ship. It will have demonstrated what the entire coastal and expedition cruise sector can become. For trade partners building long-term relationships with operators whose sustainability credentials will only matter more as client expectations rise, that trajectory is as relevant as the technology behind it.
The Honest Challenges
Looking forward, responsibility also means naming what is in the way. Hurtigruten's battery-hybrid ships are already operational, but the infrastructure to support them is not keeping pace.
"We are one step ahead of the industry, which means we cannot implement certain ideas," Biggart says. "In Norway, for instance, we need more ports with charging stations for our battery-hybrid-powered ships; there is currently a limit to where we can charge."
That constraint is a useful reminder for the trade that operator-level innovation does not operate in a vacuum. Port infrastructure, regulatory frameworks, and national energy systems all shape how quickly new technologies can move from design to deployment. Hurtigruten is working within those realities, not in spite of them. The company's approach has been to invest in what is achievable now, including biofuels and hybrid propulsion, while continuing to develop the next generation through Sea Zero's extended R&D process.
Beyond propulsion, one innovation Biggart points to sits entirely outside the emissions conversation. AI-assisted navigation, she notes, will support captains in managing smooth dockings in challenging weather conditions, an operational improvement that matters as much to the year-round reliability of the coastal service as any emissions metric.
A Role That Is Changing
"We see our role increasingly as a contributor and convenor, not just an operator," Biggart says. "As a Norwegian company, we are shaped by a national culture that prioritises long-term thinking, responsible resource management, and collaboration between industry, government, and communities. With our history, scale, and experience, we have a responsibility to reflect that mindset globally by sharing learnings, testing new ideas, and supporting progress across the sector. Leadership today is not only about innovation, but about collaboration, transparency, and a willingness to move the industry forward together."
That shift from operator to convenor has direct relevance for the adventure travel trade: Hurtigruten's ATTA membership, its publicly available ESG reporting, and its willingness to document failures alongside progress are all expressions of the same posture. The company is not treating its sustainability work as a competitive advantage to be protected. It is treating it as a contribution to a collective challenge.
"Established brands have a responsibility to lead with transparency and action, not just ambition," Biggart adds. "We have the platforms, resources, and visibility to influence behavior and standards. That means being honest about trade-offs, investing in long-term solutions, and helping normalize more responsible ways of operating and traveling."
What This Means for the Trade
For smaller operators in the adventure travel sector who may feel the scale of Hurtigruten's investment is out of reach, Biggart offers a perspective that cuts through the gap: "Sustainability does not always require large-scale investment at the start. It begins with intention, measurement, and incremental change. Small steps, such as local sourcing, energy efficiency, or guest education, can have a meaningful impact. The cost of doing nothing is often higher over time."
And on the broader question of where the industry is heading, she is direct about what she believes operators are getting wrong: "One common assumption is that travelers will always prioritize volume, speed, and novelty. We believe many travelers are seeking depth, meaning, and responsibility. The future of tourism is not about more, but about better, and those who recognize that shift will be best positioned for the long term."
That framing closes the arc this series has traced. Hurtigruten in 2026 is a company with a sharper identity, a documented impact record, a partnership model built on trust rather than transaction, and a forward plan that is grounded in what has already been achieved rather than what sounds good on a timeline. For the adventure travel trade, that combination is exactly what the next generation of clients is asking for, and exactly what responsible operators are being called to deliver.
"That progress does not require perfection," Biggart says. "Starting, measuring, and sharing learnings openly is more valuable than waiting for ideal conditions. We hope our approach encourages others to take practical steps forward, even when the path is complex."
For ATTA members, that is both an invitation and a standard. The question Hurtigruten's five-part story leaves the trade with is not whether responsible tourism is worth pursuing. It is whether the industry is moving fast enough, and honestly, moving enough, to meet the moment.