Safety Excellence Awards

2027 Safety Excellence Awards

Key Dates

• Nominations Open November 10, 2026

• Nominations Close January 5, 2027

• Applications Due February 3, 2027

• Awards Banquet March 18, 2027

Key Links

• Nominate a Contractor

• Download the 2027 Program Guide

• Nominee Portal

• Register for the Banquet (coming soon!)

• Judge Sign Up (plant members only)

Three Decades of Raising the Bar

For three decades, the GBRIA Safety Excellence Awards have honored industrial contractors whose safety programs go well beyond compliance. The awards celebrate the partnership between contractors and plant owners that keeps people safe across the region, and they recognize the companies whose leadership, training, and culture make safe work the expectation on every job.

Why Participate

For contractors, the awards offer recognition that carries weight with the owners you serve, along with a meaningful way to celebrate your crews in front of the region’s industrial community. The application process also gives your team a structured opportunity to look closely at how your safety program is built and where it can grow.

For member plants, a nomination is one of the most direct ways to recognize the contractors who help keep your site safe. It reinforces the expectations you hold for your partners and shines a light on the practices you want to see more of across the industry. 

How It Works

Nominations come from GBRIA member plant. If you are a contractor interested in participating, ask your plant contact to submit a nomination on your behalf.
Nominated contractors submit short video responses covering four areas of their safety program: Commitment, Training and Development, Learning Organization, and Innovation. Production quality is never scored, because the substance of your program is what matters.

A panel of member plant representatives independently scores each application, and finalists are selected through two rounds of review.

Award recipients are recognized at the Safety Excellence Awards Banquet on March 18, 2027.

Complete requirements, application questions, and scoring criteria are available in the 2027 Program Guide.

Eligibility

Contractors must be nominated by a GBRIA member plants. Contractors that experienced a fatality, or received a repeat or willful violation from OSHA or any other regulatory agency, during 2026 are not eligible to win an award. 

Categories and Awards

Contractors compete within their trade category and are grouped into divisions by company headcount and hours worked, so each company is measured against peers of similar size. Categories include General Construction and Maintenance, Civil Construction, Commercial Construction, Crane and Rigging, Specialty Trades, and Technical Support.

In each division, the First Place winner receives the Award of Excellence, Second Place receives the Award of Merit, and Third Place receives the Award of Recognition. Applicants may also compete for three specialty honors: the Innovation in Safety Award, the Community Service Award, and the Partnership in Safety Award, which recognizes a project completed jointly by a contractor and a plant owner.

The Hal G. Ginn Award

The program’s highest honor, the Hal G. Ginn Award, is presented to the company with the best overall safety program among each year’s applicants. Every First Place winner automatically becomes a finalist.

Awards Banquet

The Safety Excellence Awards Banquet brings together more than 700 plant and contractor leaders to celebrate the year’s honorees. Join us on Thursday, March 18, 2027, at L’Auberge Casino Hotel Baton Rouge.

Registration and sponsorship for the banquet open soon.

View photos from the 2026 Banquet

Questions?

Contact Brandon Smith