MESSAGE FROM ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF SAFETY, BRANDON SMITH

from GBRIA 25th Annual Safety Excellence Awards

by gbria

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR OF GBRIA, TOM YURA

Message from GBRIA’s Associate Director Safety, Health, and Security

Brandon Smith, CSP

Associate Director Safety, Health, and Security Greater Baton Rouge Industry Alliance, Inc.

In November of last year, I found myself transfixed to the television in a way I had not before. I was not watching the latest Netflix series or the news but found myself on the edge of my seat watching four NASA astronauts launch from the Kennedy Space Center using the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching the Crew Dragon Spacecraft. I know I am not alone thinking 2020 was a heavy year. Watching that launch, however, offered a glimmer of hope amid a constant rush of negative news. I am too young to have seen Apollo 11 and with so much time passed, too far removed to ever be truly moved by such a feat. This launch was an opportunity for new generations to see how far we can go when we strive to achieve audacious goals By now you are likely wondering what this has to do with our industry or this awards program. Aside from the aesthetics of space travel and the cosmos throughout this publication, I think a strong correlation exists between our industry and NASA’s work to put humans in space. Both efforts rely on engineers to design and test processes, products, and moving from theory to reality. Both rely on highly skilled in the crafts, to bring these designs to life. Both rely on management to ensure efficient and effective work. Both rely on an intense respect for safety – knowing their work impacts not just themselves, but all who work in or live around their operations.

While many look out into the cosmos and see it as the next frontier, we need only to look into one of our facilities to get a glimpse of next generation technology and determination to change the world in new and exciting ways. This shines through in the deployment of drones to provide heightened security details, rovers dispatched into vessels for inspections rather than people, or slipping on a virtual reality headset to walk through 3D environment to plan for lock-out points along a set of piping. As our President & CEO, Connie Fabre, often says, this is not technology of tomorrow – it is technology of today. While we can look back at 2020 and contemplate the year that could have been, it is crucial for us to recognize the ways we overcame challenges. My hope is we do not settle into the ways of how things were but embrace the change required of us. The manner of work may have changed, but not the need to move forward, to be creative, and never let up on our mission to multiply the millions of hours of safe work and when some system, process, or equipment deviates from that plan, we can rest safely in knowing that the same kind of resiliency that was required of us, is built into everything we do and allows us to fail safely. Our award nominees and members are on the cutting edge of technology and safety. I look forward to continuing to showcase these advancements in publications such as this, within the organization, and to the rest of the industrial world.