As chairman of the executive committee for the May 4-8 National Construction Safety Week 2026 events, Adam R. Jelen, CEO of Gilbane Building Co., has been deeply involved in planning this year’s program. A veteran of more than 33 years in the construction industry, he began his career with hands-on field experience followed by 19 years at Gilbane before taking over as executive director in January 2024. ENR correspondent Elaine Silver asked him about the inner workings of the Safety Week operation, how the event’s annual themes are chosen and key developments in construction safety as a precursor.
ENR: Tell us about the internal workings of the Security Week decision-makers. How the event topic is created and what the consensus process is?
After completing 10 years as an executive committee in 2025, we gathered around the biggest opportunities and challenges in health and safety to create a strategic plan for the next five years. We surveyed the world, with feedback telling us that we need to better educate the workforce about the dangers, the things that could kill you, known as STCKY . He also told us that we need to align ourselves as an industry on basic terminology. With these comments, we decided to address high energy and STCKY hazards to prevent serious injuries and fatalities in 2026 under this heading: All Together and a central theme of Recognize, respond and respect. It was so cool when we got together, we realized we’re all saying the same thing.
Tell us about the Security Week technical advisors.
The survey told us that we need to educate about the dangers and the technical safety of Safety Week was born. The technical advisors and committee members are all volunteers, which really reflects the energy and passion of the industry behind it. There are a lot of people raising their hand and putting their shoulder to it, and that’s what we found when we asked the technical commissions for help.
This year’s new item Safety Week is the bulletins. How are they created?
All the different facets of the industry and experts in all the different spaces, from owners to security leadership to technology to regulatory players, created a technical newsletter to educate about each of them. [different] topics Then we bring that into the daily themes and that provides more depth throughout the week.
Looking for quick answers on construction and engineering topics?
Try Ask ENR, our new intelligent AI search tool.
Ask ENR →
WWith your long experience in construction, where do you place the concept of the high-energy wheel and related ideas about how to refocus on serious injuries and fatalities, not just total recordable incident rates?
There is nothing more important than life, a human life. There is nothing more important than making sure our colleagues leave better than when they came. The concept of the high-energy wheel, or high-energy, high-risk activities, is a proven concept. It’s a proven model for identifying hazards and then minimizing their impact or eliminating them altogether. So for me, it’s about saving lives. Do our project calendars and critical path schedules integrate the health and safety critical path? This includes high energy hazards, planned with direct controls to save lives. The bar that should be red is security. It is making its critical importance, which is the most important thing.
What’s the best way to communicate these ideas to the industry so they sink in? What is the best way for subcontractors to accept them?
It’s really about integrating recognition, responsiveness and respect throughout the project lifecycle with all stakeholders throughout the cycle. Safety Week focuses on the front line, with the skilled tradespeople who are ultimately doing the work. It’s building that into the fabric of what we do, and that goes from procurement to planning to execution.
Is there a measurement tool that Security Week recommends for evaluating new security protocols with the energy wheel?
We will not prescribe a single tool. But it is a call to action on aligning approach terminology and implementation of recognizing, responding to and respecting high energy and STCKY hazards. When using tools like the energy wheel, recognition rates improve by 30%, significantly improving on-site security awareness. Research by the Construction Safety Research Alliance has shown that without tools like these, workers typically miss 55% of hazards. We must know the dangers to plan for them in our work.
If you had to recommend one action for a company to begin using the new knowledge about high energy and STCKY hazards, what would it be?
