Autodesk and AGC Team Up to Provide Custom Fitted Safety Harnesses for Women

Editor’s Note 3/3/20: article has been updated with the most recent information.

Back in September, Skanska announced that they had partnered with PPE manufacturers to create better fitting safety vests and safety gloves for women on the job site.  This week, technology giant Autodesk and the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) announced a partnership to supply custom-fitted safety harnesses for women.

These two recent stories are just a part of the industry-wide push to make the construction industry much more hospitable to women, a segment of the population that will continue to be leaned on to fill the labor shortage gap.

Creating and supplying better fitting PPE isn’t a vanity play, either, it’s a major safety issue.  Vests and harnesses that are too big or ill-fitting can be more of a hazard than not wearing PPE at all.  To put it in a different perspective, imagine if PPE manufacturers didn’t make XL sizes…that would be a huge barrier of entry for a very large number of contractors currently in the industry. 

"One of the most effective ways to successfully recruit more women into high-paying construction careers is to make sure firms are able to provide safety equipment that makes them even safer," said Stephen E. Sandherr, the chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America, in a press release. "We want to leverage these grants to encourage our member firms to provide a wider range of safety equipment and continue to expand the diversity of our workforce."

As part of their partnership with the AGC, Autodesk has provided $75,000 in grant funding to supply 300 fall protection harnesses to women in the industry.  The harnesses will be available to AGC member companies and have to be applied for. Applications must be submitted to the AGC’s Safety Harness Grant Program website by January 10, 2020.

UPDATE 3/3/20: On March 2, lining up with the beginning of Women in Construction Week 2020, Autodesk and the AGC officially announced who the recipients of the fall protection grants are. The 300 fall protection safety harnesses will be distributed amongst 21 different construction firms, including:

• Hughes General Contractors (North Salt Lake, Utah)

• Hurckman Mechanical Industries (Green Bay, Wis.)

• Swalling General Contractors, LLC (Anchorage, Alaska)

• Mid-Valley Commercial Construction (Salem, Ore.)

• Wayne Electric, Inc. (Houston)

• Christman Constructors, Inc. (CCI) (Lansing, Mich.)

• Faith Technologies (Menasha, Wis.)

• Thompson Electric Company (Sioux Falls, S.D.)

• Newkirk Electric Associates, Inc. (Muskegon, Mich.)

• Healy Tibbitts Builders, Inc. (Aiea, Hawaii)

• Capital Electric Construction Co., Inc. (Kansas City)

• Snyder Roofing of Oregon (Tigard, Ore.)

• Elcon Corp. (Everett, Wash.)

• W.S. Bellows Construction Corp. (Houston)

• McGough Construction (Roseville, Minn.)

• Tarlton Corp. (St. Louis)

• McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. (Dallas)

• Wanzek Construction, Inc. (Fargo, N.D.)

• Med-Tex Services (Philadelphia, Penn.)

• Rosendin Electric, Inc. (San Jose, Calif.)

• Performance Contracting Inc. (Pasadena, Texas)

“We recognize the need for more women to join the construction industry to help fill the labor gap, and keeping them as safe as possible must be top priority,” said Allison Scott, director at Autodesk Construction Solutions, in a press release. “For three hundred women in construction, AGC and Autodesk are highlighting this need, and this is a first step in drawing attention to the importance of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other customized equipment for women.”

The AGC also released the video below as part of the announcement:

More info: AGC-Autodesk Safety Harness Grant Program | AGC

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