A Message From the Safety Week Executive Committee

All In Together | A Five-Year Vision to Transform Safety

Construction Safety Week has long been a powerful show of force, a catalyst for bringing the industry together and putting a spotlight on the critical importance of safety. It represents a shared commitment across an expansive and impactful Industry. The construction industry is a major employer and significant contributor to the U.S. economy, creating nearly $2.1 trillion worth of structures each year*—and with that scale comes immense responsibility— and opportunity.

Over the last decade, we’ve made meaningful strides: advancing best practices, transitioning from hard hats to helmets, shedding light on vital issues that affect safety, like mental health, fostering a culture of care and accountability and creating partnerships and initiatives for improving jobsite safety.

Now, we’re launching a bold five-year vision to drive alignment in how safety is understood, owned and engineered across the entire project lifecycle. Safety is not just a jobsite concern; it’s an industry-wide imperative. And it starts with a shared terminology, a unified approach and fully recognizing and planning for the complex hazards our teams face.

Looking ahead, this vision calls for deeper engagement and a mindset of continuous improvement, mutual accountability and collaboration across the entire ecosystem. Building trust across every role and every relationship, we must bring together owners, architects, engineers, contractors, skilled craft professionals, trade partners, suppliers, vendors and industry associations to work side by side and drive this movement forward.

*Source: The Association of General Contractors

 

A Message From the Safety Week Executive Committee (cont.)

Together, we become leaders. A trusted voice. A rallying cry for the entire industry. And we will build the belief that everyone, no matter what their role, has the ability to shape a safer future through their leadership. There’s never been a better, more exciting time to be a part of this industry and join this movement toward safety-driven transformation.

This is the first of three bulletins we’ll release as we build momentum toward 2026 Construction Safety Week. These efforts reflect the collective work of industry leaders, safety experts and skilled craft professionals, but lasting impact depends on all of us. We must be All In Together to ensure everyone goes home safe, every life is respected and safety is elevated as a shared responsibility across our industry. We will continue to make this industry a place where safety is respected, lives are protected and careers thrive.

The power to transform safety and the industry lives with all of us. All In Together.

All In Together | Recognize • Respond • Respect

The construction industry has made significant strides in safety over the decades, yet Serious Injuries and Fatalities (SIFs) persist on jobsites across the nation—and around the world. This year’s theme, All In Together, centers on three pillars: Recognize, Respond and Respect. It reflects our shared responsibility to confront this challenge head-on and underscores the critical need for a common understanding and unified approach to identifying and mitigating hazards. When everyone acts with shared purpose and uses aligned terminology, we create the conditions for lasting change and safer outcomes across every role and every jobsite.

 

Bringing The Vision For Safety To Life

SIFs continue to take too many lives. Change won’t come until we elevate safety in every phase of the project life cycle—from early design decisions to final closeout.

Our five-year vision to reshape how our industry approaches safety starts with the recognition and control of SIF precursors: High Hazards and High Energy.

This effort is rooted in the lived experience and insights of skilled craft professionals. Through focused research and direct engagement, led by the Construction Safety Week Executive Committee, voices of those on the front lines were actively engaged to shape the priorities and solutions you see presented here.

 

Creating Meaningful and Measurable Change

True transformation requires participation from every stakeholder: owners, architects, engineers, contractors, skilled craft professionals, trade partners, suppliers, vendors and field teams.

Each has a role to play and a responsibility to recognize, respond and respect the high energy and high hazard precursors to SIFs.

By recognizing the precursors of SIFs and building proactive risk management, we can begin to shift the industry away from lagging metrics and toward meaningful, measurable prevention.

Together, we will explore how to build a common language to help all stakeholders recognize and mitigate hazards, respond with direct controls and respect these controls throughout the full project lifecycle.

We are calling on the full strength of our industry to be All In Together—because only then can we ensure that every worker goes home safe, that every life is respected and that construction becomes a place where people not only work, but thrive.

 

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“If I could change anything, I would push for more open communication and being educated on the unknowns.” – Ironworker Survey Respondent, Portland, OR

“I would love to see standardization amongst sites to match the sites considered the gold standard.” – General Contractor Survey Respondent, Rockville, VA

“I’d like to see more training for people to better understand their hazards.” – Millwright Worker Survey Respondent, Lexington, KY

“Many accidents happen because workers become complacent or unaware of specific hazards for the day. I’ve seen how even small changes can reduce incidents, and I believe making safety part of the daily rhythm can create a stronger safety culture.” – Electrical Worker, Guam

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A Show of Force

Recognizing High Energy, High Hazard and Stuff That Can Kill You (STCKY) as Common Precursors of Serious Injuries and Fatalities

The construction industry faces a critical challenge: inconsistent classification and benchmarking for high energy/high hazard recognition and the risk controls necessary to prevent serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs). Although established standards and programs are in use, their interpretation and implementation differ considerably, leading to varied approaches in SIF hazard recognition, response and adoption across the project lifecycle and amongst key stakeholders. This technical bulletin analyzes the underlying causes of these inconsistencies and proposes a clear, practical approach to recognize precursors that create a pathway for SIFs and highlighting the importance of the relationship between hazard identification models, hazard severity and high energy sources.

Construction, with its dynamic environments and complex operations, continues to be among the industries most impacted by Serious Injuries and Fatalities (SIFs). Although recordable incident rates have seen a steady downward trend in the US Construction industry, fatality rates have remained persistently high for over ten years.

Addressing Fatal Injuries

The complexity of construction presents not just a challenge, but a powerful opportunity: the industry is uniquely positioned to lead transformative change in safety by championing simplification and standardization—especially in the recognition, response and respect for high energy and high hazard risks. By aligning on clear definitions and measurable standards, construction can set a new benchmark for safety excellence and drive meaningful, lasting change across the industry.

 

Definitions

What is a Serious Injury or Fatality (SIF)?

Serious Injury or Fatality (SIF) is an incident resulting in a death, a life-threatening injury, or a life-altering injury, such as a major amputation, permanent disability or other permanent impairment.

What Is a SIF Precursor?

A SIF precursor is an event, condition or factor that precedes an incident and has the potential to lead to a serious injury or fatality. It can also be described as a high-risk situation where hazards are present and not controlled.

Identifying the Precursors of SIF Events

The pathway to Serious Injury and Fatality (SIF) incidents is distinctly different from that of lower-severity events, such as first aid cases. For instance, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) has found growing evidence that the underlying causes of SIFs differ significantly from those of minor injuries. As a result, reducing the frequency of low-severity incidents does not necessarily lead to a decrease in SIF rates. While it remains important to prevent and manage less severe events, SIFs require a separate and focused approach to analysis and intervention.

Studies examining safety programs within the construction industry indicate that various terms are employed to identify SIF precursors. Typical terminology includes:

Although the terminology is different, the purpose and application are the same: recognition of a category of hazard(s) with the potential to cause serious injury or fatality requiring a robust risk control system to prevent or mitigate the outcome. This also highlights the importance of severity, or impact, when assessing SIF precursors through hazard recognition programs.

 

Early Recognition

Early recognition of such hazards is vital if the industry is to realize a step change in fatality rate performance. Organizations that have implemented risk management programs centered on critical control frameworks—with a focus on high energy and high hazard recognition and direct control systems—have achieved notable performance improvements. In contrast, others with less mature approaches and limited access to such resources face challenges in hazard recognition, which can hinder safety outcomes.

Research from the Construction Safety Research Alliance reveals that during typical pre-task plan briefings, construction workers identify only 45% of the hazards they face. However, when hazard discussions incorporate tools like the Energy Wheel model, recognition rates improve by 30%, significantly enhancing on-site safety awareness.

In a recent industry survey of craft workers carried out by the Safety Week executive team, it was found that the craft workers recognize the high energy or high hazards, but the specific terminology of these hazards varies greatly.

This underscores a critical truth: SIF precursors consistently involve high energy or high hazard conditions. While several effective identification approaches already exist, the industry can amplify their impact with a show of force. Through harmonization and a unified commitment to standardized direct controls—and by fostering a culture of respect for those controls—the construction sector can significantly reduce fatality rates and set a new standard for safety excellence.

 

Proposed Solution

We propose uniting key stakeholders across the construction industry to adopt and recognize the terms high hazard, high energy and STCKY as consistent identifiers—or precursors—of Serious Injury and Fatality (SIF) events. Prevention efforts are anchored in risk control strategies that apply universally accepted criteria, such as the hierarchy of risk control and the hierarchy of energy control. This shared framework enables more effective hazard recognition and response across the industry.

The Formula for SIF Precursors

High Hazard = STCKY = Fatal Four = High Energy

A Unified Call to Action

To prevent serious injuries and fatalities, the construction industry must move beyond fragmented approaches and embrace a unified framework. We call on all stakeholders—owners, architects, contractors and field teams—to commit to adopting the common language outlined in this bulletin, recognizing high-risk activities, applying direct controls and respecting safety protocols throughout every phase of construction. Together, we can set a new benchmark for safety excellence.

 

A Special Thanks to Contributors to This Technical Bulletin

Executive Committee

Chair, Adam Jelen, President & CEO, Gilbane Building | Co-Chair, Kyle Larkin, President & CEO, Granite | Russell Becker, President & CEO, API Group, Inc. | Mike Choutka, CEO, Hensel Phelps | Rebekah Gray, President & CEO, Gray Construction | Jason Hendricks, CEO, Performance Contracting | Chris Beck, SVP, Managing Director, Turner Construction Company

Technical Committee

Heidi DeBenedetti, Chief Operating Officer, Gilbane Building | Steven Carter, Global Health & Safety Director, Gilbane Building | Michael Sharpe, Safety Director, Gilbane Building | Jesse Torres, Corporate Compliance Safety Director, Granite | Wendy Warner, Safety Systems & Compliance Manager, Granite | Clint Coberly, Vice President, Global Safety & Risk Management, APi Group, Inc. | Tim Gattie, Senior Director Industry Data Analytics, Oracle | Billy Naylor, Senior Vice President of Safety, McCarthy | Sean Blakemore, Regional Safety Director, McCarthy | Doug LaPlante, Vice President Operations Safety Executive, Turner | Camille Ford, Principal Consultant, JMJ | Tim Fisher, Chief Technical Officer for Safety, Health & Well-Being, American Society for Safety Professionals (ASSP) | Members of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

Learn More at ConstructionSafetyWeek.com