Excellence in Construction
Safety Award

Applications for 2026 will open in mid-December 2025.

The AWCI’s Excellence in Construction Safety Award is designed to provide national recognition to AWCI contractor members who have effectively managed safety programs throughout the past two years.

Dates to Know

Application Opens: Mid-December

Application Due: Mid-January

Judging Begins: Early February

Announcement of Winners:

BUILD26, March 15-18

Fees

$150 per entry

Payment is required at the time of application submission for each entry.

A separate application must be submitted per entry.

Safety Award Process

Open each of the menu items below to learn more about the AWCI Safety Award process and timeline.

Eligibility

All AWCI contractor members in good standing are eligible to apply for AWCI’s safety award except for those that have had a

Fatality since December 31, 2023
Willful citation (final verdict) since December 31, 2022

Application Process

Anonymity is key when completing the application form. Avoid using the contractor’s company name or staff names in essay responses. Use generic terms such as “our company” or “company X” for the company and job titles instead of staff names, e.g., “our project manager” or “our safety director,” etc.

Note: Identifying information that is required, such as the contact person’s details and company name at the beginning of the form, is used by AWCI staff and is not shown to the judges.

All submissions must include the following:

Completed application
Application fee: $150/entry
Company-wide 2025 OSHA Form 300A: The numbers that are reported on the nomination form should match the numbers on the OSHA Form 300A. If the numbers do not match, at best you will receive a call from AWCI’s safety staff and at worst your company will be disqualified.
Copy of your company’s corporate safety and health program table of contents/outline (if one exists)
Photos
- The photo file format should be .png or jpeg (.jpg)
- Minimum dots-per-inch (DPI) requirement is 300 DPI for print
- Size: 2550 pixels wide x 3300 pixels high (minimum)
- Safety award photos are not presented to the judges and therefore may show the applicant’s company brand. Safety photos are used to create the winners’ videos and for possible use in AWCI’s Construction Dimensions magazine.
- Do not include photos that show safety violations.

View a sample application.

Watch an instructional video.
Note: pre-recorded in 2023 and meant to be informative only.

Categories

Winners of AWCI’s Excellence in Construction Safety Awards will be presented primarily in the following annual hour categories:

0-500,000 annual hours worked
500,000 – 1 million annual hours worked
1 million+ annual hours worked

AWCI may reclassify man-hour categories based on the volume of applications received.

AWCI reserves the right to combine individual applications if they are submitted by the same corporate entity. AWCI also reserves the right to request company-wide safety information from individual offices to verify data and program submissions.

Judges

Excellence in Construction Safety Awards judges are all employed with AWCI member companies as safety professionals and participate with the AWCI Safety and Health Committee.

Winner Announcements

The Safety Award winners will be announced at the AWCI’s Excellence Awards Presentation during BUILD26: AWCI’s Convention + Expo, March 15-18, 2026, at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Questions

For all inquiries, contact Janie Hakim.

Get more information on all AWCI Awards here.