National Safety Council and Safetytech Accelerator launch pilot program to improve workplace safety

The National Safety Council (NSC), America’s leading nonprofit safety advocate, has announced through its Work to Zero initiative a new collaboration with Safetytech Accelerator. Through the partnership, the organisations will pilot a program to help employers trial and adopt safety technology to save lives.

Workplace fatalities are on the rise, with more than 5,300 work-related fatalities recorded in the U.S. in 2019, the latest year of available data. This represents the largest number of fatalities in a year since 2007. The NSC’s Work to Zero initiative aims to reverse this trend through the promise of technology, with the ultimate goal of eliminating workplace fatalities by 2050.

Work to Zero will benefit from Safetytech Accelerator’s experience in organising innovation challenges and managing technology pilots, including launching trials that incorporate data analytics, AI, computer analytics, AR/VR, sensors and wearables, drones and robotics technologies to life-saving safety applications. For this pilot program, the first focus area will be on examining technologies with the potential to prevent fatal incidents associated with working at height, a leading cause of workplace fatalities in the construction industry, among many others.

“It is alarming to see workplace fatalities continuing to rise when zero lives lost is the only acceptable number,” said Lorraine Martin, NSC president and CEO. “Through our Work to Zero initiative, we’re constantly exploring new ways to help employers mitigate workplace injury risks through technology, and this new pilot program is another step to accomplish that.”

Funded by the McElhattan Foundation, Work to Zero makes innovation more accessible by helping employers explore the need for safety technology, the options available and how to determine an organisation’s readiness for adopting new technology solutions, including recently unveiling a free online assessment tool.

“The safety technology report launched by Work to Zero in 2020 is a pioneering piece of research mapping potential technology solutions against top hazardous situations,” said Maurizio Pilu, MD of Safetytech Accelerator. “We are proud to work with Work to Zero on actioning this evidence by finding the best technology solutions and managing real-world technology pilots that can show the potential of safety technology and establish best practices.”

Companies that are interested in solving these issues, including working at height, will be invited to participate in technology trials facilitated by Work to Zero and Safetytech Accelerator. More information on this program will be released at the Work to Zero Summit in February.

For more information on the Work to Zero initiative, visit nsc.org/workplace/safety-topics/work-to-zero. 

ENDS

>>>

About the National Safety Council

The National Safety Council is America’s leading nonprofit safety advocate – and has been for over 100 years. As a mission-based organization, we work to eliminate the leading causes of preventable death and injury, focusing our efforts on the workplace, roadway and impairment. We create a culture of safety to not only keep people safer at work, but also beyond the workplace so they can live their fullest lives.

Connect with NSC: Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / YouTube/ Instagram

About Safetytech Accelerator

Safetytech Accelerator is a non-profit established by Lloyd’s Register and the Lloyd’s Register Foundation. It is the first fully dedicated technology accelerator focused on safety and risk in industrial sectors, with a mission to make the world safer and more sustainable through wider adoption of technology.