DEME today
DEME is a world leader in the highly specialized fields of offshore energy, dredging, marine infrastructure, and environmental works. We also engage in concessions activities in offshore energy, maritime infrastructure, green hydrogen and deep sea mineral harvesting. With 150 years of experience and nearly 6,000 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 urbanization 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, increasingly polluted rivers and soils give rise to stricter regulations and public investment programs 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 company is founded on strong beliefs and values that have navigated us through many challenges throughout our history. These values define who we are as an organisation. We live by them in everything we do.
We care
We care about our people, our many diverse stakeholders, the success of our projects and above all, the future of our planet.
The safety and wellbeing of our employees is always our number one priority. We foster a diverse
and inclusive environment where everyone feels respected, valued, and empowered to contribute their
unique talents and perspectives to our collective success.
Working together as one team, we look out for each other and we ensure that each employee gets the support they deserve to excel in their careers.
We care about our customers and want to support them in achieving their goals. We listen carefully to their exact requirements and work shoulder to shoulder with our customers, partners and suppliers, to ensure that each project is a success.
We care for our planet by addressing the challenges of a growing population, increasing maritime trade, climate change and polluted rivers and land.
We dare
We have been pioneering for 150 years. We don’t follow. We explore, push boundaries, innovate. We invest in the future, with our fleet of dedicated vessels bringing groundbreaking concepts to the industry.
We are first. We go through the learning curve before others have even thought about it. We gain the knowledge needed to take the next step and this expertise allows us to anticipate industry developments – to understand what our customers are going to need in an ever-evolving landscape.
We are not bound by tradition. Our talented professionals look beyond the ‘norm’. They develop new equipment, concepts, and technologies, so we can create opportunities and enter new markets - even create new markets.
We deliver
We build on decades of experience and knowhow to provide the safest, smartest and sustainable solutions for our customers, no matter how challenging the project. Our team will always go the extra mile to get the job done.
We understand our customers’ business inside out and know how vital it is to complete projects on time and on budget. Our customers know we are a trustworthy and reliable partner.
Our dedication to continuous improvement and operational excellence means we are constantly innovating and refining our approach to deliver even greater value to our customers.
We deliver on our promises. We deliver excellence.
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.
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 programs designed to seek out and support innovative initiatives. One example is the DEME-X campaign, which focuses on disruptive, transformational innovation. Additionally, every two to three years we organize the Innovation Diver, which is aimed at employees worldwide.
Nature-based Solutions
Working in the marine environment, nature and ecological value are at the heart of DEME’s business. One of the ways we increase ecological value is by exploring opportunities to recover, improve, or develop ecosystems in each of our projects through the application of Nature-based Solutions (NbS).
By applying Nature-based Solutions, we are able to increase and explore ecosystem services (for example, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, etc.) while at the same time safeguarding project requirements.
We are dedicated to carrying out more sustainable marine works for us, for our customers, and crucially, for the local community and the environment.
