Construction leaders at EcoOnline safety forum advocate for faster, safer project delivery

North American safety leaders called for an insight-led shift to proactive safety programs as tighter schedules shrink the margin for error on site

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--At EcoOnline’s 2026 North America Construction Safety and Operations Forum, leaders pointed to three immediate priorities: earlier signals for serious harm prevention, standardized systems that scale, and stronger contractor site readiness. Designed to support collective progress on construction safety, the forum—featuring customers such as AtkinsRéalis, Borea Construction, and Winvic—explored how technology can support safer, more predictable project delivery.

Common site risks, including slips, trips, and falls, haven’t changed. What has changed are the operating pressures: tighter schedules, more frequent plan changes, and narrow execution windows that increase strain and reduce the margin for error.

Shifting to leading indicators for prevention
Forum participants described a shift toward Serious Injury and Fatality (SIF) prevention, with greater focus on tracking high-potential near misses. While Total Recordable Injury Frequency (TRIF) remains important for compliance and reporting, Dan MacLeod, Global Lead for Programs & Systems at AtkinsRéalis, said, “We put much more emphasis on SIF prevention. TRIF reflects past outcomes, not future risk.”

Similarly, Ghislain Malouin at Borea Construction added, “We track serious near misses internally, even when clients do not request them, because if you do not track it, you do not improve.”

Organizations also described placing greater weight on high-energy hazard identification, weak-signal detection, and verifying that corrective actions reduce exposure at the point of work.

Standardizing safety with regional flexibility
As construction firms scale across projects and jurisdictions, consistent systems and data are becoming the foundation for faster, better decisions. As Shaan Gehlot, HSE Analyst at AtkinsRéalis, put it, “Standardization is what allows us to compare performance meaningfully across projects and regions,” enabling leaders to spot trends and act earlier while still accounting for local requirements and site realities.

Leaders also stressed that this approach only works if it reduces friction for supervisors and frontline teams. Simpler incident reporting and more timely, actionable visibility were cited as key to improving adoption and strengthening data quality.

Ensuring contractor competency
With contractor competency varying widely across sites and supervisors increasingly stretched managing checks alongside day-to-day delivery, leaders unanimously agreed there is a growing need to digitize contractor certification, permitting, onboarding, and safety training. The goal is to reduce supervisors’ administrative burden and make competency more consistent in the field.

This focus aligns with Verdantix’s Smart Innovators: Control of Work Software report, where EcoOnline is a featured vendor. Verdantix found that 40% of surveyed medium-, high-, and very-high-risk firms intend to increase control of work software spending in the coming year, and projects that spend will surpass $1.5 billion by 2030.

Tom Goodmanson, CEO of EcoOnline, said, “As pressures grow and technology moves faster than ever, construction leaders are looking for a trusted partner to help carry the burden, so they can protect people and future-proof their business. That’s why we bring leaders together through forums like this: to share what’s working, debate priorities, and accelerate safer operations. Our role is to support better decisions with insight, not replace human judgement. As the forum reinforced, construction safety should be data-driven, but it is fundamentally people-centered.”

Learn more about how EcoOnline supports construction safety.

About EcoOnline
EcoOnline delivers uncomplicated environment, health and safety (EHS), chemical management and ESG/sustainability technology solutions to forward-thinking leaders. Safeguarding your entire workforce, from frontline employees to lone workers and contractors, EcoOnline’s always-on solutions support your organization through everyday operations and moments of emergency and crisis alike. Our connected suite of SaaS software enables over 11,000 businesses to protect their people and the planet by ensuring compliance, risk visibility and mitigation, operational predictability, and long-term resilience. Backed by an unwavering commitment to customer success, EcoOnline’s software is powerful yet simple to use – built on decades of real-world expertise, data and insights.