At Mortenson, we are optimistic about Portland’s future. We are more encouraged than ever about where opportunities will lead us, both as a development and construction firm that can set the tone for others in our industry to follow as well as a forward-thinking community and city.

Our company culture emphasizes building for the greater good, which involves providing leadership and service, cultivating relationships, and becoming better partners. To us, this is about a lot more than just constructing new buildings. It’s about thinking carefully about who we are building for, what we are building for them, and being an exceptional partner through collaboration.

Crucially, we also feel that this applies directly to the communities where we live, work and play. Portland today faces social and economic challenges that it hasn’t faced in recent history. We believe any organization, regardless of its services or products, can be an integral partner in achieving solutions to those challenges.

When we opened our permanent Mortenson office in Portland in 2012, the city was renowned for the desirable and inclusive quality of life it afforded, reinforced by awe-inspiring natural beauty and a robust economic future. I arrived here in 2009 and found the connections we made with our partners downtown incredibly important to how business was done. Connections were made while attending events, dining at restaurants or simply walking down the street.

While the COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest, homelessness and crime combined to deal Portland a significant blow and temporarily stall our region’s momentum, we continue to focus on the future and remain encouraged by the many positive signs showing that the region and the city are beginning to power their way past those hurdles.

To fully regain the thriving marketplace for developers, designers and builders, significant work remains to be done. At Mortenson, we have ideas that can potentially contribute to the reestablishment of Portland as the vibrant business center that drives our region forward.

First, we believe we need to find opportunities to bring people together – as businesses and as individuals. We recognize that there have been fundamental changes to the workplace and in our community brought on by the pandemic. But that doesn’t mean we can no longer get together in person and have fun! Some of our current projects reflect this, including the Portland Art Museum’s Rothko Pavilion and the new Hillsboro Hops ballpark. Both strive to build connections and invest in bringing the community together.

Next, we believe businesses can help be problem-solvers. This includes collaboration like what is transpiring downtown with the new Midtown Beer Garden, a new food cart pod headed by the partnership between software company Expensify and the ChefStable restaurant group. It’s a brilliant concept, and we see it as a blueprint for downtown Portland. In a situation where others might have made the decision to leave the city, they instead made a significant investment to improve this part of downtown.

There also needs to be a focus on building a sustainable workforce in and around the region. With billions of dollars in infrastructure spending headed our way, there is an immediate and pressing need throughout our community to continue building a pipeline of talent. Mortenson is emphasizing education, building a more diverse workforce, and spearheading new ways of communication that empower our team members and business partners. For instance, Mortenson has partnered with Portland Community College and Clark College to build program spaces that help fill the manufacturing skills gap.

Those workforce efforts are just one part of advancing our industry through creativity and innovation. Just as important is the work we are doing to drive efficiencies in the building process. These include the use of prefabrication, modular construction, and increasingly collaborative design-build delivery methods that integrate new technologies to allow for faster, more cost-efficient project completion.

Finally, working together as both an industry and a community naturally fosters a more business-friendly environment that seeks to emphasize the health and well-being of workers, the companies that employ them, and the region as a whole.

To help bring Portland’s recovery full circle, there needs to be ongoing investment in this region and this marketplace in both the public and private sectors. Portland is the beating economic heart of the region. Quite frankly, the stronger downtown Portland is, the stronger our entire region is. We all need it to be the best it can be, and that means it needs to be clean, it needs to be safe, and it needs to be attractive to both businesses and their customers.

Businesses should take the initiative to be a part of this effort. Downtown needs us all to be present and engaged. A retreat could accelerate existing problems. Only by working together as a resilient community will we be able to bring back that feeling that people are at the center of things here in Portland, part of something important and part of the greater good of the region.

Mike Clifford is vice president and general manager of Mortenson’s Portland office. Contact him at 971-202-4100 or mike.clifford@mortenson.com.

The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed in the preceding commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Daily Journal of Commerce or its editors. Neither the author nor the 91��Ƶ guarantees the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein.

The post Real progress in Portland: belief and investment in the city’s future | Opinion appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Every year, more than 80,000 workers suffer an injury on construction job sites across the U.S. This is a staggering statistic, and each person and company involved in construction needs to take responsibility for changing it.

As a collective community, construction companies have come together nationwide to celebrate the second annual Construction Safety Week. Being safe every day on every job site crosses competitive boundaries and goes beyond getting the job done. Safety Week (May 3-9) is an opportunity for construction firms to work together to eliminate worker injury and motivate everyone in the industry to be leaders in safety. Construction firms around the region are planning activities to thank workers for being injury free, inspire the sharing of best practices to elevate our collective safety culture strength, and increase awareness of the importance of being committed to safety every day.

The overwhelming support from construction industry leadership, project owners and politicians is a testament to efforts brought by our community commitment to safety. It also validates our vision of “Zero Incidents Through Collaboration” at SafeBuild Alliance, which is a nonprofit organization promoting the transformation of workplace cultures to achieve an incident-free construction industry.

Many state and local officials have joined in the 2015 Construction Safety Week celebration. Governor Kate Brown has proclaimed May 3-9, 2015 Construction Safety Week in Oregon. Several cities have joined the celebration. Following Portland’s participation in 2014, Mayor Charlie Hales has proclaimed May 3-9, 2015 Construction Safety Week in the city. Others have followed: Beaverton, Happy Valley and many more.

Construction companies in the Pacific Northwest are engaging in activities to increase awareness and highlight their commitment to safety. Some activities include: visits by company leaders to job sites and participation in inspections; safety committee meetings; training; and company-wide lunches and awareness activities. If you are interested in celebrating Safety Week, visit www.safetyweek2015.com for ideas.

Many regional firms are providing training for their teams. In addition, SafeBuild Alliance has collaborated with several organizations to provide the following training opportunities around Safety Week for our community:

• Oregon OSHA, in partnership with SafeBuild Alliance, is presenting a free class on the lessons learned from fatal accidents. Using functioning models of construction equipment, Mike Riffe, an Oregon OSHA accident investigator, illustrates several fatal accidents that occurred in the Portland area. Using facts from each case, the presentation examines under-evaluated warning signs, the mechanism of injury, causes of failure and preventive measures that should have been taken to prevent the tragic losses. “It is imperative we learn from these tragic events,” Riffe said. “These people lost their lives while working for others. They are very real people with real families and friends. Learn a little about each one of these victims, understand what happened, and learn from mistakes made.” The class will be April 13, from 8:30 to 10 a.m. at 16760 S.W. Upper Boones Ferry Road in Durham.

• OSHA 7405: Fall Hazard Awareness for the Construction Industry to Prevent Falls in Commercial and Residential Construction is a free class at the OSHA training center. The focus of this course is to identify, evaluate, and prevent or control fall hazards at construction sites. The target audience is the small construction employer, business owner or manager who would like to obtain information about fall hazards found in the workplace. The training is also suitable for employees and employee representatives. Topics include identifying fall hazards, analyzing fall hazards and preventing fall hazards, as well as OSHA resources addressing fall hazards. Local industry representatives will also be guest speakers at this special event. Register at osha.washington.edu.

• Industrial Training International (ITI) is offering a different rigging toolbox talk for each day of safety week. Rigging, hoisting and crane activities are among the most risky and dangerous activities conducted on construction sites. During safety week, take a little time each morning with craft teams to ignite those neurons by watching a free video or reviewing a quick toolbox talk on a crane and rigging subject. Videos and files will be posted each evening and be available on any mobile device or browser each morning, at www.iti.com/safetyweek.

To set the tone and importance of the week to our regional safety community, SafeBuild Alliance is hosting a Safety Week Kick-Off Breakfast event and quarterly meeting on May 1 at the World Forestry Center (4033 S.W. Canyon Road in Portland) in Miller Hall. More than 40 companies have stepped up locally and regionally to sponsor the free event.

Mike Parnell, a world-class, subject-matter expert in cranes, rigging and load handling – and the technical director & CEO of Industrial Training International – will be the keynote speaker. He will challenge attendees to evaluate how hazards, risks and unfamiliar tasks have been handled by past generations, and how today’s employees and organizations need to earnestly recognize their strengths and weaknesses in order to achieve project success while lowering risks. Also, Capital Safety will provide a fall protection and rescue demonstration.

For more information about SafeBuild Alliance, Safety Week 2015 and the Kick-Off Breakfast, visit www.safebuildalliance.org.

We hope you are inspired to get your company involved in Safety Week and lead change within.

Mike Clifford is a construction executive with Mortenson Construction and president of the SafeBuild Alliance. Contact him at 503-201-7628. The SafeBuild Alliance is a nonprofit organization working to achieve incident-free construction projects through the transformation of workplace cultures. For more information or to join, visit www.safebuildalliance.com.

The post OP-ED: Builders come together for safety’s sake appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.