As one of the initiators of the DFSI Magazine, I am pleased to present the Winter 2025 edition and deeply honoured to serve as guest editor so soon after my retirement from IADC.

This edition focuses on Chapter Four of the book Dredging for Sustainable Infrastructure. With my background in economics, it’s a chapter dear to my heart, addressing the societal impacts of maritime infrastructure projects, such as stakeholder engagement and ecosystem services – both essential elements of a sustainable project. Stakeholder engagement is standard practice across the dredging industry. Ensuring the interests of all parties means projects deliver greater societal value and often progress more efficiently, benefiting both clients and contractors. The four case studies in this edition each show how involving local stakeholders contributed to project success.

The local knowledge and experience of fishermen in Jan De Nul’s project informed the impact assessment and informed the design of mitigation measures and the monitoring programme. Community support also increases when local people directly benefit from a project; DEME’s investment in maritime education for young people is a clear example of such empowerment.

Van Oord’s mangrove restoration initiative further demonstrates this principle. More than 100 community members joined an alternative livelihoods programme that reduced reliance on mangrove logging and improved family incomes – an important, lasting benefit beyond the project itself. Managing the environmental and social dimensions of large-scale infrastructure projects is inherently complex, often involving conflicting interests. Boskalis' Gulhifalhu reclamation project shows the evolving role dredging companies play in achieving sustainable results.

Despite declining global support for sustainability, it remains highly relevant to the dredging industry. Embracing sustainability enhances social value and allows contractors to differentiate through innovative approaches. The next step is valuing and monetising externalities – the positive and negative effects traditionally excluded from project evaluations.

IADC’s 2015 report Ecosystem services: Towards integrated marine infrastructure project optimisation was an important step in this direction. The concept of ecosystem services recognises all positive and negative effects of the services ecosystems provide, the effects of which can be valued and monetised. A common denominator allows for comparing effects and determining where to mitigate or compensate, resulting in a higher social value of the project. The evaluation of the Hondsbossche and Pettemer sea dunes project, available on the IADC website, demonstrates the benefits of incorporating and monetising such externalities.

I hope these articles both inspire and encourage you to take the next step. A more sustainable society benefits us all.