Congratulations to everyone at our Merck project site for achieving 5.5 million safe work hours. The major safety milestone was achieved across a 30-year continuous work relationship between GreenWood and Merck. GreenWood’s team provides Merck with various construction related services. This Merck facility produces vaccines in a plant covering more than one million square feet and has been operational for over seven decades.

At the center of this significant accomplishment is GreenWood’s “Always Aware” safety program which emphasizes safe work practices for individuals and employee teams at all times. The program integrates into the Merck safety standards where prevention of incidents, accidents and injuries is an ongoing priority.

Merck says that safety is the number one priority and credits GreenWood for doing an excellent job in looking out for their interests. Every morning begins with a safety meeting to review jobs and the work involved with projects. GreenWood personnel participate in the Safety Observation Reports (SOR) where they are empowered to recognize safety issues, report them and play an active role to ensure safety practices are always observed. Merck officials commented that “Safety belongs to everyone and GreenWood takes it seriously.  We consider GreenWood a major player and a spoke in the wheel of what we do here at Merck. We are one team, one community.”

Kevin Crittendon says that it takes continuous training and a personal commitment to maintain safe work environments in every job performed. “These milestones are reached only by having a safety mindset through employee engagement at all times. When we do that consistently, we all enjoy celebrating the accomplishments of having zero incidents. Being able to have this kind of relationship for nearly 30 years at Merck is a privilege and we thank them for the opportunities to do even more in the years to come.”