NAHB/Builders Mutual Safety Award for Excellence Winners

The Safety Award for Excellence (SAFE) recognizes those in home building who have made successful efforts to advance jobsite safety in the industry. NAHB and its official safety sponsor, Builders Mutual, congratulate the 2022 winners.

The winners were honored at a ceremony in the IBS Jobsite Safety Zone on the show floor at the 2023 International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas, Jan. 31-Feb. 2.

NAHB Safety Champion of the Year

Paul Terry
Helitech
Caseyville, Illinois

As Helitech’s safety director, Paul has taken on the full responsibility of learning OSHA and NIOSH safety standards as useful tools for workers to recognize safety issues before they become a hazard to those workers and the general public. He has developed best practices training programs that have ensured workers have the knowledge to do every aspect of their jobs as safe as possible. Paul has also implemented highly successful programs on new hire safety orientation, ongoing equipment training, new incident investigation procedures, and more.

Job-Site Safety Institute Innovative Safety Idea of the Year

Werner
Itasca, Illinois

Celebrating 100 years of innovation, Werner manufactures a full line of professional grade products built to last for generations while withstanding the most challenging jobs. From ladders to fall protection, Werner provides a full line of climbing equipment that’s engineered to give you maximum safety, durability, and productivity at every height. Werner has been recognized with this year’s Innovative Safety Idea of the Year award for its fall protection harness design feature known as the “Chair In The Air.” This product features built-in relief handles for post-fall adjustment on the company’s fall protection harnesses. In the event of a fall, workers simply pull the patented relief cords to deploy the built-in seat and achieve the gravity override position, reducing the likely hazards of suspension trauma by relieving potentially fatal pressure on the femoral arteries.

NAHB Associate Member Safety Program of the Year (More than 50 employees)

Excel Property Management
Raleigh, North Carolina

Excel Property Management is a North Carolina-based company specializing in affordable housing and performs work in other states, including South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. It is the belief of the owners and staff of Excel Property Management that every individual has the right to quality, affordable and decent housing. Excel’s efforts in safety and health are a major contributor of their employee retention, high occupancy rates, and retaining a core group of contractors and subcontractors that prefer working with them. Excel intends for all employees, residents, and contractors to value their professional work, of which safety is integral.

Single Family Builder Safety Program of the Year (Fewer than 10 Home Starts Per Year)

Sea-Dar Construction
Boston/New York

For the past 30 years, Sea-Dar Construction has been building a wide range of construction projects. From luxury urban residences and fine suburban custom homes, to large, technically complex institutional and commercial structures, each is managed with the same commitment to quality and customer service. Sea-Dar Construction is striving to become a model for safety among contractors across the industry, and especially of their size. In the past year they have expanded their safety program from a single safety officer to a full committee consisting of Project Managers and field staff.

Single Family Builder Safety Program of the Year (Between 11 and 100 Home Starts Per Year)

Hobbs, Inc.
New Canaan, Connecticut

Hobbs, Inc. is a 68-year-old family-run custom home building company operating across multiple regions in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. Safety and health on a Hobbs jobsite is the number one core value – from Hobbs’ own workers all the way down to a project’s subcontractors. In fact, Hobbs works with safety partners, conducts frequent safety training and uses cutting-edge technology to minimize risk to the safety and health of its workers.

Single Family Builder Safety Program of the Year (Between 100 and 500 Home Starts Per Year)

Summit Homes
Lees’ Summit, Missouri

Summit Homes is delivering a personalized, customer-centric, home-building experience creating high-quality, innovative homes in the Kansas City and Des Moines areas. The award-winning company is known for developing and building exceptional communities as well as its innovative design practices. Safety is not the responsibility of a small group of workers at Summit Homes – all staff that interacts with trade contractors do their part in fostering safety best practices as part of their culture of safety. Summit has implemented a program that continues to focus on safety as a core value while handling the rapid growth of the markets in which they build.

Multifamily Builder Safety Program of the Year (Fewer than 50 Employees)

Holland Construction, Inc.
Denver, Colorado

Holland Partner Group (HPG) is a fully integrated real estate investment company with two decades of experience and is recognized as the most consistent and reliable delivery mechanism in the real estate industry. Holland’s vertically integrated platform consists of development, construction, acquisition, redevelopment, and property management. Their mission is to create a safe work environment that influences the attitudes of all who enter their jobsites and sends a message of intolerance in taking risks that could lead to workplace injury. Holland Construction is passionate about leading the industry by providing consistent leadership that changes the way people look at their relationship to safety.

Remodeler Safety Program of the Year (Fewer than 50 employees)

Charter Custom Homes
Seattle, Washington

Charter Custom Homes (CCH) and its parent company, Charter Construction, have been working in occupied residences, completing tenant improvement, remodeling, new construction and building rehabilitation projects for nearly 40 years. CCH is committed to providing a safe work environment for its employees, with the goal of making sure their workers go home each night safe, uninjured, and healthy. Using the Job Hazard Analysis system, CCH can design its safety program to ensure each construction operation is thoroughly reviewed from start to finish.

Remodeler Safety Program of the Year (More than 50 employees)

Alan Shintani, Inc.
Waipahu, Hawaii

With a history going as far back as 1979, Alan Shintani, Inc. has expanded and evolved to become a highly recognized and respected member of Hawaii’s construction industry. Alan Shintani’s emphasis on “safety first” is backed by our comprehensive safety policy and enforcement. It is a strict requirement covering safety, health, and accident prevention implemented through regular project safety meetings, continuing education, training and certification, and making resources available. Its commitment to a high standard of safety has resulted in receiving numerous awards from the Army Corp of Engineers, Hawaii Occupational Safety and Health, and more.

Specialty Trade Contractor Safety Program of the Year (Fewer than 50 employees)

Closets Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada

For more than 20 years, Closets Las Vegas has been the go-to custom closet source for homeowners, homebuilders, contractors, handymen, and Do It Yourself-ers for the perfect home storage and organization solutions. A top priority for Closets Las Vegas is to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses by making sure all work areas are safe before any work begins. They continue this trend throughout a project, making sure every worker is safe and well-trained to recognize hazards during every step of the job.

Specialty Trade Contractor Safety Program of the Year (More than 50 employees)

Brass2Copper Mechanical, Inc.
North Las Vegas, Nevada

With more than 130 employees, Brass2Copper Mechanical focuses its work on new residential homebuilding, primarily installing plumbing and fire protection systems within the southern Nevada area. As part of its work, Brass2Copper Mechanical continues to place safety as the number one priority on a daily basis and maintains a culture that safety is important and necessary.

State or Local Association Safety Program of the Year

Montana Building Industry Association

As the voice of Montana’s housing industry since 1968, the Montana Building Industry Association (MBIA) is made up of construction companies and associate entities that support the construction industry and its affiliates from across the state. The MBIA’s GRIP, or “Guiding Readiness, Insuring Prevention,” program promotes safety on the jobsite through classroom education, onsite training, safety audits and specialized courses to meet the specific needs of a company.

NAHB Student Chapter Safety Program of the Year

Roxbury High School
Succasunna, New Jersey

Students in the Roxbury High School Structural Design and Fabrication program learn as much about safety in the classroom as they do on the jobsite. In fact, classes build modular homes in the school parking lot, where they learn proper material handling, tool usage, erecting scaffolding, and much more. The safety program at Roxbury High School teaches students that safety is the most important thing on a jobsite and instills in them the proper safety mindset needed to begin a career in construction.

Leadership in Construction Safety

Matt Murphy
SEE, Inc.
Keedysville, Maryland

Throughout his career, Matt has made valuable contributions in the area of jobsite safety and health and has built a strong reputation as a safety leader within the homebuilding industry. He has assisted NAHB on numerous training and advocacy activities, including development of safety handbooks and videos, conducting jobsite visits with OSHA staff so the agency could see firsthand the safe work practices used on residential construction jobsites, and participating in meetings with OSHA on critical safety issues impacting home builders. Matt has served as a frequent, highly regarded speaker at the International Builders’ Show (IBS), most recently working with the Job-Site Safety Institute to provide safety-related training during the 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023 IBS. Additionally, he has helped hundreds of construction companies start their safety program or take their programs to the next level.

Excellence in Mental Health (Company)

MindWise Innovations
Dedham, Massachusetts

MindWise Innovations was founded with the goal of shaping the current and future state of behavioral health for the better. Its services support the full continuum of mental health – from prevention to crisis response – with evidence-based solutions that educate and prioritize health for all ages. NAHB, with help and resources from MindWise Innovations, has been conducting a pilot program addressing behavioral health for young professionals through a series of focus groups designed to gauge the impact of workplace culture on mental wellbeing. The pilot program also included roundtable training to prepare young and experienced professionals to lead trainings focused on intergenerational conversations about mental health and workplace culture.

Excellence in Mental Health (Association)

Home Builders Association of Iowa

The Home Builders Association (HBA) of Iowa is a leading advocate for the residential construction industry within the state. NAHB and Builders Mutual recognized the HBA of Iowa for taking a proactive role in addressing the mental health crisis and promoting various resources among its membership. Specifically, the HBA of Iowa incorporates in its own resources materials such as “Building a Caring Culture: Addressing Mental Health in the Workplace” and the Behavioral Health Guidebook, both of which fellow SAFE Award recipient MindWise Innovations helped create. Companies that want to incorporate mental health and wellbeing into company culture will benefit from these and other resources available from the HBA.