NASHVILLE, Tenn. — LP Building Solutions has been recognized as a 2022 Safest Company Award winner by APA – The Engineered Wood Association. Now in its 15th year, LP has won this prestigious recognition 11 times.

This premier safety award program for the structural panel and engineered wood industry in North America selects winners based on the lowest rates and severity of injuries, greatest reductions in injuries, innovations to reduce injuries, and best company record. APA conducts an industry-wide Safety Survey of member and non-member mills that report their recordable, restricted work, lost time, and fatality incidents and hours worked to APA each calendar year by submitting their annual OSHA 300A Log. This year, more than 80 mills reported data for 2022.

The Safest Company Award goes to the APA member companies with the best average weighted incident rates (WIR), which are calculated based on restricted work, lost time, fatality, and other recordable incidents. In 2022, LP’s WIR for its mills was an industry-leading 4.59. Across all its locations, LP achieved a WIR of 3.95.

“At LP, safety is central to everything we do,” said LP Chair and CEO Brad Southern. “It is our responsibility to create a safe work environment for all team members and uphold safe work practices regardless of the task or location. By applying an innovative mindset to our safety programs and practices, 2022 was another year of strong safety performance. We would not have received this recognition without the focus and dedication of every LP team member and for that, I’m sincerely grateful.” 

In addition to the Safest Company Award, LP’s oriented strand board facility in Ponta Grossa, Brazil, won APA’s Three-Year Safety Award, which is presented to mills with the best average WIR over the last three years. Additionally, the facility won APA’s Safety and Health Honor Roll Award.

Since 2007, LP has achieved a companywide world-class total incident rate (TIR) below 1.0 and has reached 1 million recordable-free hours at various LP sites 17 times. The company’s safety leadership has earned it more than 85 awards since 2010. Additionally, LP has won over 20 APA Awards, including the Equipment-Based Innovation Award and the Jeff Wagner Process-Based Innovation Award.

“We are proud of our members’ commitment to processes that improve worker’s safety,” said APA President Mark Tibbetts. “It is important that we, as an industry, continue to implement best practices to keep our workplaces as safe as possible.”