May is Building Safety Month

Words: Karen HickeyThis month is Building Safety Month, organized by the International Code Council (ICC). Is safety the top priority at your business? Unless a rigorous safety protocol is in place, sometimes it’s easy to get too comfortable and become lax in work practices. But this is exactly when accidents, even fatalities, occur – exactly the thing we can’t afford.

The theme for 2016 is “Building Codes: Driving Growth through Innovation, Resilience and Safety.”

Weekly themes spotlight a specific area of building safety and fire prevention:
  • Week One, May 2—8, Building Solutions for All Ages.
  • Week Two, May 9—15, The Science Behind the Codes.
  • Week Three, May 16—22, Learn From the Past, Build for Tomorrow.
  • Week Four, May 23—29, Building Codes: A Smart Investment.
During May, members of ICC, as well as construction and design professionals, will conduct school assemblies, host information booths at builder supply stores, and implement proclamation signing ceremonies to increase awareness about the importance of building and remodeling to modern codes and standards.

ICC Board of Directors president Alex Olszowy III recently stated, “Building to modern codes and standards provides important safety and economic benefits to communities, their businesses, schools, churches and homes, and the people who occupy them.”

What are you doing to reinforce safe work practices on a daily basis? Maybe it has been a while since you’ve examined your procedures, or perhaps you need to revisit how building codes are impacting masonry.

I encourage you to visit ICC’s website, www.iccsafe.org, to find out how for 36 years, Building Safety Month has celebrated advances in constructing safe, sustainable, affordable and resilient structures.
PPE That Workers Actually Wear: Building Buy-In Through Education and Smart Selection
August 2026

In masonry construction, personal protective equipment (PPE) is often the last line of defense between a worker and an injury. Yet despite its importance, PPE compliance remains one of the most common challenges on jobsites across the country. The realit

Greg Brown
Safety Library
Read More
Zero Laydown: Navigating the Logistics of Tight Urban Job Sites
August 2026

In modern commercial construction, spatial real estate has become just as valuable as the materials themselves. The industry shift toward high-density, urban projects means that the sprawling job sites of the past have been replaced by tight footprints wh

Shayne Sanders
MAP Partner
Read More
Why "The Software Can't Track That" Is Finally Going Away
August 2026

For as long as specialty contractors have used field software, most of them have kept a workaround somewhere: a spreadsheet on a foreman's laptop, a whiteboard in the trailer, or a text thread where crew leads send block counts at the end of the day becau

Erin Koets
Build Smart
MAP Partner
Read More
Monadnock Building
August 2026

Chicago’s Monadnock Building doesn’t dominate the skyline the way it once did. Surrounded by steel-and-glass towers, the dark brick structure can seem almost understated. But for anyone in the masonry industry, it remains one of the most important buildin

Cass Stern
American Treasure
Brick Clay Brick
Read More
Interested in working with us? Learn about and join the Masonry Alliance Program →