Denver — The National Safety Council honored four organizations for their exceptional safety leadership with its renowned Green Cross for Safety Awards.
Presented during the 26th annual Green Cross Celebration – presented by U.S. Steel – on Tuesday, the accolades recognize the best and brightest in three categories: safety advocacy, safety excellence and safety innovation.
The 2025 winners:
Safety Advocate Award (sponsored by First Student):
Amazon – Amid a national opioid crisis, the company is proactively equipping its North American operations facilities with the overdose-reversal medication naloxone. This initiative makes Amazon one of the first major companies to answer national authorities, nonprofit leaders and public health officials’ calls to employers to stock the lifesaving solution in their facilities.
Emergent BioSolutions – Last year, after over-the-counter approval and availability of NARCAN Nasal Spray, Emergent began working with businesses to prepare for accidental opioid emergencies. Through outreach and education, the company sought to increase access to this potentially lifesaving solution in workplaces, including jobsites, brick-and-mortar stores, airlines and hospitality venues, where emergency response tools such as AED kits are common.
Safety Excellence Award (sponsored by Amazon):
New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services – DCAS operates the largest municipal fleet in the United States, with more than 28,500 vehicles, and assists with the oversight of a 10,000-vehicle NYC-contracted school bus fleet. DCAS adopted a New York City Safe Fleet Transition Plan in 2017. The SFTP formalized a set of best-practice vehicle-safety technologies for all NYC vehicles to prevent and mitigate crashes, in direct support of Vision Zero. In 2014, New York was the first city in the United States to adopt Vision Zero. DCAS has been a lead agency from the onset. The SFTP, developed in partnership with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Volpe Center, was updated in 2019 and again this year. DCAS announced in January that more than 100,000 safety upgrades had been implemented through the plan, including national leadership in intelligent speed assistance, truck sideguards, addressing visual awareness for trucks and telematics.
Safety Innovation Award (sponsored by Centuri):
Puget Sound Energy – Puget Sound Energy deployed SYTIS TC-90 cameras in its wind turbine nacelles to enable it to get eyes inside the electrical enclosures and diagnose issues from a safe distance. This allowed PSE to both reduce the risks associated with electrical cabinet exposures and keep potentially dangerous tower climbs to a minimum. Seeing heat issues before sending in technicians not only speeds up the process of dealing with the issues but, because this technology detects electrical problems in nascent stages, they help avoid catastrophic problems such as fires and arc blasts. After its success in the nacelles, PSE deployed these cameras in the field to diagnose the root cause of converter failures, where they quickly found success.
“NSC is honored to recognize these organizations for their leadership, innovation and dedication to safety,” NSC CEO Lorraine M. Martin said. “The impact of their work is far-reaching – protecting our workplaces and communities today and shaping a safer tomorrow. Congratulations to this year’s Green Cross for Safety Award finalists and winners, and thank you to each of them for their efforts to save lives.”
The Green Cross Celebration raised over $788,000 to advance safety and workplace health and well-being.
