A Stronger Standard for Health and Safety
At Gilbane Building, protecting the people who make our work possible is central to every project and planning decision. As our industry evolves, the frameworks we use to identify, control, and eliminate the most dangerous jobsite hazards must evolve with it.
As Chair of Construction Safety Week 2026, Gilbane, together with Executive Committee leadership, is helping drive a unified industry effort to better recognize, respond to, and respect the high‑energy hazards most associated with Serious Injuries and Fatalities (SIFs). This work represents a critical step toward a stronger, more consistent safety standard.
With the release of three technical bulletins—Recognize, Respond, and Respect—we have a complete framework that advances safety from awareness to action to culture.
Building Alignment Across the Industry and at Gilbane
Fragmented terminology and risk control practices have long complicated SIF prevention. The technical bulletins aim to establish a common language and shared framework so teams can plan and execute work more predictably and safely.
Gilbane fully supports this alignment, and we pair it with our Gilbane Cares commitment: it’s how we build and how we care for our people, our trade partners, and the communities we serve.
Recognize: Recognizing High Energy and High Hazard Activities
The first bulletin, Recognize, proposes uniting key stakeholders across the industry to adopt and recognize a unified approach to recognizing high‑energy, high‑hazard, and STCKY activities as the consistent identifiers or precursors of events involving serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs). While several effective identification approaches already exist, the industry can amplify their impact with a show of force.
Gilbane brings the Recognize principle to life by starting early, long before construction begins. We use tools like the Energy Wheel during preconstruction risk assessments to identify high‑energy hazards, embed control strategies into procurement and design documents, and code high‑risk activities into schedules for visibility and verification. This proactive approach ensures hazards are anticipated and mitigated before work starts, aligning with our safety‑by‑design philosophy.
Respond: Responding with Direct Controls
The second bulletin, Respond, focuses on implementing effective, direct controls to prevent and eliminate hazards. It highlights the Hierarchy of Energy Control as a proven method for preventing SIFs, emphasizing energy elimination, energy reduction, and energy isolation as direct controls over administrative measures or PPE.
Responding means moving from awareness to action. At Gilbane, we prioritize elimination, reduction and isolation of direct controls first, integrating them into design and planning, so they’re in place before crews mobilize. On site, our Safety Management System reinforces these controls through daily huddles, shift‑start planning, and focused inspections on high‑energy work. By embedding prevention into every phase, we make sure safety isn’t dependent on behavior alone; it’s built into the system.
Respect: Building a Culture That Sustains Safety
The third bulletin, Respect, reinforces that every hazard, every person, every life, and every role matters in preventing serious injuries and fatalities. Safety is strongest when it is embedded across every phase of a project, from design through execution and operations.
It calls for a culture where:
- All stakeholders, from owners and designers to contractors and skilled craft, actively contribute to safety outcomes
- Hazards are addressed early, when solutions are more effective and less costly
- Workers are empowered to stop work, reassess, and replan when conditions change
- Psychological safety is prioritized alongside physical safety
It also highlights a critical shift: moving beyond compliance-based programs to risk-based approaches that focus on early hazard identification, proactive planning, and workforce empowerment.
At Gilbane, this aligns directly with our safety-by-design philosophy. We engage stakeholders early, integrate Prevention through Design (PtD) principles, and ensure safety considerations influence decisions from concept through completion.
A Unified Call to Action
Together, the three bulletins deliver a powerful, unified message: preventing SIFs requires more than compliance; it demands alignment, proactive planning, and a deep respect for human life.
When owners, designers, contractors, and skilled craft work within a shared framework to identify and control high-energy hazards, we create safer, more predictable outcomes across the industry.
Gilbane is proud to lead alongside our partners in advancing this framework, modeling the behaviors we expect, continuously improving our practices, and strengthening a culture where everyone plays a role in safety. We encourage you to download the technical bulletins and take advantage of all planning resources the Executive Committee has developed to bring Construction Safety Week to life at your company.
When we are truly All In Together, we don’t just build projects; we build a legacy of safety, respect, and care.
