Make Your Nominations for NSC Green Cross Awards

From now until Nov. 11, the National Safety Council is accepting nominations for its 2019 Green Cross for Safety Awards. This prestigious honor is presented annually to individuals and organizations that demonstrate a continuous improvement in work safety as well as advancing a culture of safety in homes, communities, or transportation. NSC will announce the winners at the NSC gala on May 16 in Chicago.

“The Green Cross for Safety awards recognize individuals and organizations that are dedicating to making the U.S. a safer place to live, work and play,” said NSC president Deborah A.P. Hersman. “We are encouraged each year to see the phenomenal work that nominees have undertaken in the name of safety – work that mirrors our own mission of eliminating preventable deaths in our lifetime.”

According to data on unintentional injury-related fatalities kept by the National Center for Health Statistics (an arm of CDC), the leading causes of preventable death in the U.S. are poisonings – largely from drug overdoses – motor vehicle crashes and falls.

Awards will be presented in three categories:

• Excellence in Safety - Recognizing a corporation, coalition or organization that has created a life-saving and injury-preventing safety solution. Results must demonstrate benefit to the greater good.
• Safety Innovation – Recognizing an individual, corporation, coalition or organization that has achieved evidence-based success by taking an innovative approach to solving a safety challenge.
• Safety Advocate – Recognizing an individual whose personal contributions have been proven to reduce preventable deaths and injuries.

Since 2000, the National Safety Council has been recognizing outstanding achievements of its members as well as other safety advocates through the Green Cross award. The recognition was given to one organization each year until the program was revised in 2016 to allow one winner in three different categories. Past winners include companies such as Boeing Fabrication, Fiat Chrysler, and UPS.

“Employee engagement in safety is critical. Start with regular safety discussions every day with all employees,” Boeing wrote in a statement after earning NSC’s award for safety excellence as well as innovation for 2017. “Listen for their doubts and concerns, take action to remove roadblocks and empower them to be responsible for their own safety, as well as their teammates. Utilize leading indicators, such as near misses and hazard identification, to (expose) issues and provide the opportunity to solve the problems before injuries occur. Integrate safety into the regular rhythm of daily management, so working safely becomes part of the job.”

Be a Safety Leader

Make your workplace safer (and earn a 2019 green cross nomination) by taking steps to reduce injury-related fatalities and risks. Implement safety programs such as near-miss reporting and hazard identification with help from Graphic Products resources and visual communication solutions.