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Typically, competitors in the building industry do not share best practices with each other. But for safety, they can make an exception.

The SafeBuild Alliance, an 85-member nonprofit, has created a unique mentorship program in which nine contractors or subcontractors share with nine minority-owned, women-owned or emerging small businesses their methods of facilitating safe workplaces. Over the next 12 months, the partners will discuss both technical and cultural actions needed to improve workplace safety, SafeBuild Alliance board President Steve Clem said.

The basic premise is not for one company to show another how to rewrite its safety manual, said Clem, Skanska USA Building vice president of preconstruction. Rather, the idea is for experienced firms to share lessons learned whenever possible, he said.

“The bigger companies have invested money in consulting and training,” he said. “If there is a form needed, they probably have it. Small businesses meanwhile are just trying to stay in business. Safety takes money, time and effort.”

Each partnership will operate through its own rules. Participants will visit each other’s shop and work sites with the goal to make measurable improvements in safety over the next year.

The SafeBuild Alliance is hoping to generate from each partnership feedback that it can share will all of its members, Clem said.

He stressed that MWESB firms were participating willingly and that their role as mentee had nothing to do with poor safety records. Both sides can learn from each other, he said.

“Our organization (in the past) hasn’t embraced diversity as fully as it should,” he said. “People were contacted and self-identified who were really motivated and concerned about safety.”

The program mentors are: Mortensen Construction, Hoffman Construction, Skanska USA Building, Andersen Construction, McKinstry, TCM, Oregon Electric Group, EC Co. and Howard S. Wright, a Balfour Beatty Co.

The mentees are: Affordable Electric, Inland Electric, PacificMark Construction, Crestview Construction, NWR Construction, Art Cortez Construction, Professional Minority Group, Parrish Excavating and Liberty Steel.