Survey of Safety Professionals Finds Shockingly High Incidence of Noncompliance ROSWELL, GA. — Nearly all of the safety professionals in a survey released today said that workers in their organizations had at some point failed to wear the necessary safety equipment while on the job. An exceedingly high 98 percent of respondents who attended the recent American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) show in Baltimore answered “yes” when asked if they had observed workers not wearing safety equipment when they should have been, according to the survey, which was conducted by Kimberly-Clark Professional.   To make matters worse, 30 percent … Read more

New “Building to LEED for New Construction” Designed to Help Contractors, Designers and Developers Navigate Green Building Certification Process, Maintain LEED Accreditation The Associated General Contractors of America today unveiled a new green construction education program designed to make it easier to build and renovate green, LEED-certified buildings. The new program, called Building to LEED for New Construction, Second Edition is designed to help contractors, designers and developers successfully navigate the green building certification process and keep their green accreditations current. “Green building is rapidly changing from a niche market to the industry norm,” said Stephen E. Sandherr, the association's … Read more

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — An estimated 30 billion square feet of gypsum wallboard is manufactured each year in North America. According to waste management specialists, approximately one pound of waste is generated for every square foot of construction area. That translates to about a ton of wasted scrap per home. Now imagine how much scrap wallboard is created when building a seven-story, 235,000-square-foot hospital building. To re-use the gypsum, while addressing the enormous wasted scrap, Veit Companies and Kraus-Anderson Construction Company (KA) have partnered to create an innovative drywall recycling program for the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children's Hospital construction project … Read more

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Taking safety to the next level, Clayco Inc. has announced a new partnership with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to create unparalleled safety standards during construction of the Missouri Baptist Medical Center West Pavilion project in Town & Country, Mo. In a signing ceremony held August 3, 2010, the project teams — including Clayco Inc., Legacy Building Group, Murphy Company, Sachs Electric, and the OSHA-St Louis Area Office — pledged support of a continued commitment to safety on the jobsite. The subcontractors involved in the project will also be incorporated into the partnership upon … Read more