About us

DEME today

DEME is a world leader in the highly specialised fields of dredging, land reclamation, marine infrastructure, offshore energy and environmental remediation. With more than 145 years of experience and about 5,000 highly skilled professionals, we have built up a vast bank of knowledge and expertise which has allowed us to foster a pioneering approach throughout our history. This enables us to bring tailor-made solutions, innovation and new technologies to our customers’ projects, ensuring that they are performed safely, efficiently and cost-effectively.

While our roots are in Belgium, DEME has built a strong presence across the globe. We operate one of the largest and most technologically advanced fleet of vessels in the world, supported by a broad range of auxiliary equipment.


Solutions for global challenges

Our vision is to work towards a sustainable future by offering solutions for global challenges.

The urgent need for reduction of emissions has led the Paris Agreement to commit countries to Net Zero Emissions by 2050, spurring growth for clean energy. The resulting energy transition and the related electrification are expected to result in a growing demand for critical minerals.

The rising sea levels are forcing a necessity for new types of marine infrastructure and coastal protection.

The growing population and fast urbanisation pace are increasing the need for land reclamation and brownfield development in already densely populated areas.

The rising maritime trade activity requires constant marine infrastructure upgrades to ensure ship access and suitable ports.

Finally, the increasingly polluted rivers and soils give rise to stricter regulations and public investment programmes that push for more environmental solutions.

Through its diversified portfolio of activities, DEME is well positioned to tackle each one of those challenges.


Exploring new horizons

We also strongly believe in turning challenges into opportunities. That’s why we are continuously looking for ways to deploy our knowledge and expertise in other activities, exploring new horizons and expanding our solutions portfolio. We are building on our experience in coastal protection to develop nature-based solutions to tackle the rising sea level. We aim to be a frontrunner in green hydrogen by operating industrial-scale production facilities. With Global Sea Mineral Resources we develop technologies to source critical minerals needed for the energy transition in the most responsible way. Investing in new activities underlines how important pioneering is to DEME.

Our core values

Our core values can be summarised in the word 'STRIVE'. Forming the basis of our commitment to consistently deliver excellence to our customers and value to our company, our 'STRIVE' values are reflected in everything we do. We also expect our suppliers, subcontractors and partners to adhere to these standards.

SAFETY
The personal safety and health of employees and stakeholders is our greatest responsibility. Everyone has the right to work in a safe and risk-free environment at all times.

TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP
With an open mind and the right team spirit, we continue to improve all aspects of our work process and develop trailblazing solutions to address the needs and challenges of our customers.

RESPECT & INTEGRITY
Our employees are trained and motivated to meet the challenges ahead. Individuality and diversity are valued and performance is recognised. Our relationships with suppliers, subcontractors and partners reflect respect, understanding and sound business practice. We observe all applicable laws and regulations of the countries in which we are active. We respect human rights and prohibit discrimination.

INNOVATION
Innovation is the cornerstone of our achievements. We continuously push our boundaries by developing new, value-adding services and solutions.

VALUE CREATION
We make result- and sustainability-driven decisions in order to ensure long-term growth for the benefit of employees, customers and shareholders. This includes financial discipline to keep our company healthy.

ENVIRONMENT
We protect the environment and the communities in which we do business by limiting our impact and exploring opportunities for sustainable value creation together with our stakeholders.

Sustainability

Undoubtedly, the world is facing multiple global challenges, from rising sea levels, CO2 emissions, a scarcity of resources, a growing population to an increasing demand for energy. The United Nations has attempted to tackle many of these issues by initiating 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to create a better, more sustainable world by 2030.

At DEME we strongly believe that everyone has a role to play - governments, companies and individuals – and we have stepped up to the challenge by integrating several of the SDGs into our business. This will help us create sustainable value for customers, ourselves, stakeholders and in the wider society.

We are leveraging our resources and expertise to help achieve these universal goals for a sustainable future and we understand that to have the largest possible impact, we need to do more than simply minimise the footprint of our own operations. Therefore, we are designing and implementing business solutions that address specific UN SDGs.

Everyone at DEME, together with our shareholders, is committed to playing a pioneering role that proactively investigates technological solutions to tackle these challenges. But we know we cannot do it working alone, so we have reached out and joined forces with partners in the maritime sector, research and science community, non-governmental organisations, technical solution providers, climate experts and many others. Together we believe we can truly make a difference.

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Innovation

At the heart of DEME's sustainable growth

Pushing the boundaries of innovation continues to be at the heart of DEME - it is actually one of our core values. We understand that innovation gives us an edge in this competitive environment.

Our investments in new technology prove just how important innovation is to us. Employees across the globe collaborate on technological developments with the goal of introducing sustainable solutions in the markets where we operate. We consider the close cooperation between sites, vessels, project management teams and technical and engineering departments to be the key element in delivering innovative solutions for our customers.

We identify challenges that need solving and then look to our people via several programmes designed to seek out and support innovative initiatives. One example is the DEMEx campaign, which focuses on disruptive, transformational innovation.  Additionally, every two to three years we organise the Innovation Diver, which is aimed at employees worldwide. The last Diver resulted in an impressive 421 ideas, several of which have subsequently been turned into reality.

 

Annual reports

Our latest annual reports can be downloaded here.