An idea for Arnold Donald, Carnival Corporation CEO.

Carnival Cruise Line is notorious for its hazardous environmental impacts. They have been in court for not properly disposing of waste, and recently dumped over half a million gallons of pollution into our beautiful oceans. Their ships allegedly do not discharge oil, sewage, food waste, and more in a proper fashion. If you think about how many cruises Carnival Cruise Line runs a year (about 1,500), it isn't hard to realize the awful impacts of the company.

Now, more than ever, people are getting “heated” about global warming issues. People are standing up for the environment more than ever, through social media, protest, and proposed legislation. As this issue becomes more widespread and recognized, more and more large corporations are being forced to comply with needed environmental standards. Carnival Cruise Line is no acception. They have been progressively popping up in headlines, leading to a total PR mess. So what if Carnival could have a win-win: the ability to clean up the environment and their reputation, while also increasing revenue? And how does this exactly relate to the prompt, which asks for “innovation to disrupt the status quo”?

I believe Carnival could really disrupt the “norm” for cruise lines today while also increasing profit and their overall public approval. This would be hard work, but it can be done. Carnival would need to become sticklers about adhering to regulations and rules set among them, and would even go above and beyond just adhering. While this was going on, their PR team would launch a full scale marketing attack across all social media platforms. This would be focused on the environment: the effort they are putting into it and the importance of action.This would greatly appeal to their future clients: the youth. They would promise to donate a certain percentage of their profit into ocean clean up and research projects around the issue. By doing this, Carnival would create a new standard for all cruise lines. The ones would didn’t follow suit would be viewed as ‘unprogressive’ and ‘disappointing’. By getting in a better standing with the public and attracting a broader target market, Carnival would increase their amount of customers rapidly.

Business for betterment is becoming more and more popular. The cruise industry has been stagnant area for years, and this kind of energy shift would be the disruption to the status quo that is long overdue. This type of innovation is unconventional, but it is beyond necessary.