Auburn Engineering presented with CSHEMA’s 2024 Innovation Award for Safety Culture for a Large School
Published: Aug 2, 2024 1:00 PM
By Joe McAdory
For its continued efforts to incorporate safety into research and education, Auburn Engineering earned the Campus Safety, Health and Environmental Management Association’s (CSHEMA) 2024 Innovation Award for “Safety Culture for a Large School.”
CSHEMA’s safety culture awards recognize institutional practices of faculty, staff and students that promote a culture of safety. This recognition comes just months after Auburn Engineering was recognized as a National Safety Council Green Cross Award semifinalist.
“Winning the CSHEMA Innovation Award and being a semifinalist in the Green Cross Award speaks volumes about Auburn Engineering's unwavering commitment to safety,” said Emmanuel Winful, Auburn Engineering safety manager. “These accolades highlight our college's excellence in developing and implementing effective solutions to complex safety and health challenges within our research and teaching activities. They affirm that our efforts in safety, health and environmental matters are not only noteworthy but also align with national standards of excellence.”
The CSHEMA Innovation Award for Safety Culture and the National Safety Council Green Cross Award are both prestigious but focus on different aspects of safety. CSHEMA honors educational institutions that have implemented innovative and effective solutions in campus safety, health and environmental management, with the potential for these solutions to be replicated at other institutions.
In contrast, the National Safety Council Green Cross Award recognizes organizations that have made substantial contributions to promoting safety and health with the goal of eliminating preventable deaths and injuries in the workplace.
Three examples of Auburn Engineering’s commitment to safety, Winful said, are supportive leadership, proactive hazard identification and risk assessment, and receptiveness to change and continuous improvement.
Since its creation in 2018, Auburn Engineering’s Office of Safety initiated a number of safety directives, including:
- Developing safety empowering programs and identifying resources necessary for implementation;
- Creating a process for open dialogue;
- Creating a process for hazard identification and making risk assessment processes an integral part of the experimental design, theses, dissertations, extramurally funded projects, student organization projects and undergraduate and graduate education;
- Empowering undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and visiting scholars, faculty and staff to freely voice safety concerns;
- Implementing a process for safety education and training;
- Integrating safety education and practices into engineering curricula;
- Instituting a system of accountability, recognition and rewards.
“This recognition by CSHEMA underscores our dedication to creating a safe environment where faculty, staff, students and visitors can freely express their ideas and turn them into reality,” Winful said. “It is a testament to our dual commitment to groundbreaking research and the education of future engineers and leaders in a safe and supportive atmosphere.
“I am genuinely excited and humbled to be part of the College of Engineering and support them in their research and teaching efforts through safety while at the same time getting recognition for the work we do. We will continue to strive toward becoming the best student-centered and safest engineering college in the nation.”
Media Contact: , jem0040@auburn.edu, 334.844.3447
