SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Swinerton is the latest general contractor to join the NEXT Coalition made up of leading critical infrastructure and construction companies to promote and share industry safety best practices. Black & Veatch, DPR Construction, Haskell, McCarthy Building Companies, and Swinerton are leveraging their deep safety expertise and best practices in a campaign to ensure the well-being of crews and office team members facing complex challenges posed by the coronavirus outbreak.
"COVID is a new safety risk for the construction industry that requires a rapid coordinated effort to ensure our employees go home safe every day," said Eric Law, Senior Director Technology & Innovation at Swinerton. "Instead of every firm trying to solve the same problem, we can work together to improve safety across our industry. This approach ultimately allows for faster evaluation of new solutions in response to the COVID pandemic."
The coalition seeks to identify and advance processes and technologies most likely to bolster construction safety in response to the "next normal" ushered in by COVID-19. To that end, the coalition is launching the "Construction Safety Challenge," an open call to companies, startups and other innovators with emerging safety solutions that can be quickly deployed and scaled.
The Next Coalition seeks both new startups and seasoned companies to partner with its members to implement products and processes that will enhance health and safety in the field and back office. Submissions must be as close to market-ready as possible, though proof-of-concept/prototype-stage solutions will be considered. Solutions that are chosen may be deployed by coalition members on active projects around the globe.
The Construction Safety Challenge seeks solutions in areas that include safety policy compliance, screening, tracking and tracing, real-time communication, incident tracking, data analytics and others. Technologies or solutions may include screening, mobile apps, disinfection, wearables, contact tracing, personal protection equipment (PPE) and more.
Such considerations are paramount in the construction sector where work cannot easily be done remotely and social distancing can be challenging. This makes developing solutions to minimize or quickly mitigate the onsite transmission of COVID-19 and future pandemics essential.
The Construction Safety Challenge is facilitated by Brightidea, the leading innovation management platform that accelerates the success of modern approaches by harnessing the creative potential of organizations. Developed ideas are submitted through a web portal, a mobile app or by email, then reviewed by subject-matter experts at each company.
"The Construction Safety Challenge is another example of organizations turning to crowdsourcing as the best way to generate reliable and vetted solutions for mitigating the impact of this pandemic," said Matt Greeley, Brightidea's CEO. "The solutions that come out of the Safety Challenge will surely be applicable to other industries as they start to grapple with what the `next normal' looks like."
About Swinerton
Swinerton provides commercial construction and construction management services throughout the United States and is a 100% employee-owned company. Recognized nationally since 1888, Swinerton is the preferred builder and trusted partner in every market it serves—proudly leading with integrity, passion, and excellence. For more information please visit: https://swinerton.com/
About NEXT Coalition
NEXT Coalition was devised and created by a coalition of leading U.S. & global engineering and construction firms. We are dedicated to safeguarding the industry by protecting the lives of our workers and the communities our work impacts from threats including but not limited to COVID-19. For more information visit: https://nextcoalition.co/
SOURCE Swinerton
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