National Safety Month Kickoff: Focusing on Preventing Strains and Sprains

By Stephen Walter

As National Safety Month begins, it’s an opportunity to reinforce a shared commitment across McKinstry: ensuring every person goes home safely, every day. Safety is more than a priority. It is a responsibility carried by every team, on every job, in every role.

For 66 years, McKinstry has delivered operational excellence across the built environment. At its core, operational excellence means understanding risk, taking action to mitigate it and delivering quality work safely. That foundation is built on our environmental health and safety principles and our “No Harm” culture: the belief that no job, deadline or project is worth someone getting hurt.

This year, a key area of focus is strains and sprains, one of the most common and preventable types of workplace injuries. Across the industry, these injuries continue to trend upward. They often develop gradually, such as a sore back after repetitive lifting, a strained wrist from repeated motion or a knee impacted by an awkward movement. This makes injuries easy to overlook until they become more serious.

Preventing these injuries starts with intention. Simple, consistent practices make a difference. That can include stretching before work, avoid manual lifting if possible, using proper lifting techniques, setting up workspaces ergonomically and building in meaningful breaks. Just as important: the everyday decisions people make to pause when something doesn’t feel right, speak up about potential risks and look out for one another.

That mindset comes to life across McKinstry’s operations, from jobsites to tool rooms. In places like the Kent, Washington, tool room, for example, safety is embedded in every step of the process, from inspecting forklifts and delivery vehicles to ensuring tools are fully checked and safe before they reach the field. Attention to detail, quality checks and daily conversations about hazards help reduce risk and build trust, even in fast-paced environments.

Safety is not a one-time conversation. It’s something reinforced every day, through job hazard analyses, peer-to-peer accountability and a shared commitment to doing the right thing, even when work is busy. When everyone takes ownership, safety becomes part of how the work gets done.

National Safety Month is a reminder that building a strong safety culture takes both process and personal commitment. It’s not just a metric or a milestone. It’s a culture of care and concern, lived out by teammates across the company who look out for one another.

Because at the end of the day, No Harm is about something simple: making sure every person goes home safe and sound.