Forrester Construction. Keep Building.

Rockville, Maryland, April 1, 2019 – Forrester Construction has been named the winner of a National Safety Excellence Award from Associated Builders and Contractors. Forrester Construction received the award March 27 during the 29^th annual Excellence in Construction® Awards gala at the ABC Convention 2019 in Long Beach, California.

Forrester Construction won for their industry-leading, People Based Safety Program that emphasizes the key role that every individual plays in creating and maintaining safe jobsites.

“As a construction company, safety has to be the number one priority for every single person who steps foot on a jobsite. We take that responsibility seriously, and have built an approach to safety at Forrester that we are extremely proud of. When we say ‘safety first’ it isn’t a slogan for us, it is how we operate every day. Using a People Based Safety approach means a safety mindset permeates our work and keeps us focused on what truly matters – ensuring every single person working on a Forrester job goes home to their family safe and healthy at the end of every day,” said Forrester’s President and CEO Stephen Houff.

The 2018 National Safety Excellence Award winners were selected from ABC member firms that achieved Diamond, Platinum and Gold status in ABC’s STEP safety management system in 2018. During the selection process, national safety winners were judged on self-evaluation scores, lost workday case rates, total recordable incident rates, leading indicator use, process and program innovations and video interviews conducted by members of ABC’s National Safety and Health Committee.

“Associated Builders and Contractors is proud to honor Forrester Construction for creating world-class safety processes and a safety culture where every employee understands that the wellbeing of those around them is everyone’s responsibility,” said 2019 ABC National Chair Tony Rader, telecom vice president of National Roofing Partners, Coppell, Texas. “Their top-down, bottom-up approach to creating safe jobsites—and ensuring every one of their employees goes home in the same or better condition than when they arrived—is the gold standard in merit shop construction.

The National Safety Awards are presented in three major North American Industry Classification System code categories: NAICS 236 – Construction of Buildings; NAICS 237 – Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction; and NAICS 238 – Specialty Trade Contractors.

STEP is the standard for developing world-class safety management systems in construction. STEP is designed to help both large and small contractors evaluate every aspect of their corporate safety and health programs and identify opportunities for improvement. According to ABC’s annual Safety Performance Report, the average STEP Diamond company is more than six times safer than the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ average for the entire industry based on their total recordable incident incident rate.

A full list of winners can be found on ABC’s website.