DNV GL to rebrand, cutting GL from name

DNV GL, which formed in 2013 after a merger between Det Norske Veritas (DNV) and Germanischer Lloyd (GL), said it will shorten its name to DNV as of 1 March 2021.

“Combining the two names was the right solution in 2013. However, it was not a name that rolled off the tongue, and many customers already refer to the company as DNV," DNV GL chief executive Remi Eriksen said.

The classification society, headquartered in Høvik, Norway, said it was making the change "after a comprehensive review of the company’s strategy as it positions itself for a world in which many of DNV’s markets are undergoing fundamental change."

Positioning the company as an "assurance and risk management company," the DNV GL statement referenced the decade of the 2020s as the "decade of transformation or the exponential decade”, due to the expected rate of change across the energy sector and increased maturity of digital technologies.

The 2020s are a time when "the pace of the energy transition will be set and where food, health and transport systems will change immensely and digital technologies underpinning industry 4.0 will mature from experimentation into large-scale application," the statement said.

However, the most important feature of the 2020s, according to DNV GL’s rebranding statement, is that it is the decade "where humanity will succeed or fail to deliver on the [United Nations] Sustainable Development Goals".
"DNV will offer the best, most efficient and digitalised ways of delivering services – be it classification, certification, verification, inspection, advisory or digital solutions," Mr Eriksen said.