Dive Brief:
- Executives from major U.S. contractors have come together to form a new CEO Advisory Council that will guide an industrywide effort to target and bring down construction’s high rate of suicide among workers, Bechtel announced Thursday.
- In addition to Bechtel, leaders from Fluor, Turner Construction Co., North America’s Building Trades Unions, Kiewit, Clark Construction, DPR Construction, Skanska and Stanley Black & Decker make up the council.
- The group will bring expertise and insight to support an initiative launched earlier this year by Reston, Virginia-based Bechtel. In March, the contractor pledged $7 million over five years to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to tailor new programs for the construction industry.
Dive Insight:
The suicide death rate for construction workers was more than double the nationwide rate (46.1 vs. 19.5 per 100,000 full time employees) in 2022, and five times as many construction workers died by suicide than in at-work fatalities that year, the most recently available set of data.
When CEO Brendan Bechtel announced the company’s pledge to the AFSP — the largest in the foundation’s history — he described the statistics around suicide in construction as “shameful.”
With the donation, the AFSP seeks to reach half a million construction workers over the next five years through industry-specific programs and resources aimed to increase awareness of suicide and mental health outreach.
The council itself will meet quarterly to evaluate current mental health programs, identify gaps in support and design new initiatives to address the needs of construction professionals. Efforts will include enhanced training programs, awareness campaigns and improved access to health resources.
“Just like with worksite safety, nothing is proprietary when it comes to saving lives,” Bechtel said in the release. “The more we can engage a broad group of leaders and collaborate on solutions, the more effective we will be in providing our people the support they need. We owe it to them, to our colleagues, and to their families to find solutions and prevent these tragedies.”
The founding members of the council are:
- Don Allan Jr., president and CEO of Stanley Black & Decker, based in New Britain, Connecticut.
- Brendan Bechtel, chairman and CEO of Bechtel.
- David Constable, chairman and CEO of Fluor, based in Irving, Texas.
- Peter Davoren, chairman, president and CEO of Turner Construction Co., based in New York City.
- Richard Kennedy, president and CEO of Skanska USA, based in New York City.
- Rick Lanoha, president and CEO of Kiewit, based in Omaha, Nebraska.
- Sean McGarvey, president of NABTU, based in Washington, D.C.
- Robert Moser Jr., CEO of Clark Construction, based in Bethesda, Maryland.
- George Pfeffer, CEO of DPR Construction, based in Redwood City, California.
