Matthew Hallowell News

Matt Hallowell wrote a book on workplace safety. Industry made it a bestseller.

Susan Glairon — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 16:29:16 +0000

Matt Hallowell wrote a book on workplace safety. Industry made it a bestseller. Susan Glairon Mon, 11/17/2025 - 09:29

Susan Glairon

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s Construction Safety Research Alliance (CSRA), a nonprofit research organization established in 2018 by Professor Matthew Hallowell, brings together hundreds of industry and academic researchers to collaborate on creating and sharing new safety knowledge. The goal: to eliminate serious injuries and fatalities in the construction industry.

Recently Hallowell wrote the book, “Energy-Based Safety: A Scientific Approach to Preventing Serious Injuries and Fatalities,” which summarized the research of more than 100 journal papers in reader-friendly terms.

Within 48 hours of announcing the book pre-order on Amazon, the book topped the charts in industrial psychology, ergonomics and industrial health and safety.

Your book is an Amazon bestseller. Why is a book about worksite safety so popular?

Serious issues and fatalities have been a big problem for a long time, and there hasn't been an evidence-based solution. There's a hunger in our profession for something new, and there's a big community behind it.

The book grew from the research we conducted in the CSRA—examining the unique causes of serious injuries and fatalities. We had produced a lot of papers on the topic, but they were scattered across journals and hidden behind paywalls. Industry simply isn’t going to chase them down.

This book is a one-stop shop; all the scientific evidence in one place. I took the research and presented the theory in accessible terms and explained how to integrate that knowledge into the everyday activities companies already perform.

Professionals have relied on traditional safety practices for decades. When did you first realize those methods weren’t enough to prevent serious injuries and fatalities?

Less-severe injuries have been declining year over year for a long time. Unfortunately, over the same period, the fatality rate has remained statistically unchanged. In fact, roughly the same number of people die on worksites as did 17 years ago. We knew we need to do something different. We had to figure out what’s different about serious injuries and fatalities.

What inspired you to do this type of research and create the CSRA?

I initially focused on traditional civil engineering. During my PhD, I became interested in safety, and, once I started at CU, I developed my own research style. Safety is a multi-faceted topic. There’s a little bit of engineering. A little bit of law. Some psychology, business. And I was interested in exploring all these angles.

Who is buying the book?

The biggest volume is from industry, although several professors from different universities will be using the book in their courses, which is cool! There’s a big push from industry to modernize academic programs, and this new evidence-based approach to safety is beginning to get attention in the academic realm.

What are the biggest takeaways from the book?

The book covers four major principles.

Energy causes harm. So anytime somebody gets hurt, energy from the environment is contacting them, like being struck by something, or an electrical shock.
More energy causes more harm. There's a limit to what we can sustain, and it's 1,500 joules.
Controls save lives. Energy is required to do work. Safety becomes our ability to harness that energy to get work done without it coming in contact with a person.
People drive performance. The situations we put employees in affect the decisions they make. If people are rushed and tired and they don't know the safety procedures, the controls are much less likely to be used correctly.

These principles apply to any injury that happens to anybody anywhere. These concepts are far broader than construction. Somebody recently posted on LinkedIn that they've been using energy-based safety for their commercial drone flying operations.

What do you see as the biggest barrier to adopting this evidence-based research?

The biggest challenge is communicating that this work is not my idea of how safety should work, or what I think about safety. It's hundreds of people, it's hard evidence, it's experimentation, and empirical data. And that's something that the safety profession hasn't had enough of in the past.

What's next for you?

For me, “next” probably won't be a book.

I underestimated how difficult it would be to write an evidence-based book. I'm not just sharing my ideas or guesses. Everything in the book is drawn from evidence. I tried hard to explain where the knowledge came from and why you should trust it. And I had to explain it in a way that would be easily understood. It’s much easier to write a journal paper!

I’m working on the next generation. We need to grow the scientific community in this field. Our PhD students are going off and teaching at other universities. That's the biggest way we improve our ability to do research. All proceeds from this book are being redirected to a scholarship fund that supports this next generation.

With fatalities unchanged for nearly two decades, industry has been hungry for clear, practical guidance rooted in solid research, says Professor Matt Hallowell. In his first book, Hallowell summarized the research of more than 100 journal papers in reader-friendly terms, providing the first comprehensive, evidence-based explanation of why serious worksite injuries persist and how to prevent them.

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CUE magazine: A big fix

Susan Glairon — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 20:35:32 +0000

CUE magazine: A big fix Susan Glairon Thu, 06/26/2025 - 14:35

In this 2025 edition of �鶹��Ѱ��Engineering (CUE) magazine, CEAE researchers tackle pressing challenges—such as the increasing frequency and severity of hurricanes, wildfires and floods—head-on, developing innovative solutions to repair aging infrastructure and build a more resilient future.

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Construction Safety Summit highlights latest research to keep workers safe

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Dec 2022 21:24:23 +0000

Construction Safety Summit highlights latest research to keep workers safe Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/20/2022 - 14:24

The Construction Safety Research Alliance (CSRA) hosted its third annual Safety Summit in 2022, bringing together over 200 construction industry safety professionals from across North America to discover the latest alliance research, share best practices and connect with peers, advocates, and leaders in the field. Research for the CSRA is led by executive director Matthew Hallowell, an associate professor for civil, environmental and architectural engineering.

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�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder hosts inaugural construction safety summit

Anonymous — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 16:53:22 +0000

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder hosts inaugural construction safety summit Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/15/2021 - 09:53

The �鶹��Ѱ�� hosted a global conference on construction safety in early November. Attendees of the inaugural Safety Summit included 150 in-person and 100 virtual guests representing nearly 80 U.S. and international companies in the construction industry.

Sponsored by the Construction Safety Research Alliance at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder, the event at Folsom Field provided attendees with a forum to discuss the latest findings in safety research from areas as diverse as reporting incident rates and using predictive analytics to employing augmented or virtual reality to improve industry safety.

The alliance is a collaboration between industry and academia working together to understand industry needs, conduct field research, collect and analyze data and share the results broadly as an open-source organization.

Based in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, the group conducts three to four research projects a year. The work is led by civil engineering PhD students under the guidance of CSRA Executive Director Matthew Hallowell, Associate Director of Research Sid Bhandari and Associate Director of Strategic Advancement Katie Welfare. Each research team also includes industry professionals.

“The CSRA is an innovative research model because it blends the scientific strengths of the University of Colorado academic team with the practical knowledge of our industry partners,” said Matthew Hallowell, director of the alliance and an endowed professor in the Construction Engineering Management program at the College of Engineering and Applied Science. “Together, the CSRA community magnifies research impact and vastly accelerates the translation of research to practice.”

The rate of serious injuries and fatalities has plateaued in the construction industry for nearly 20 years. The CSRA was formed to create a new future of safety where the methods used to prevent serious incidents and fatalities are based on defendable science. They leverage the fact that safety is not proprietary and that organizations can work together in pursuit of the common goal of fatality prevention.

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Matthew Hallowell News

Matt Hallowell wrote a book on workplace safety. Industry made it a bestseller.

Your book is an Amazon bestseller. Why is a book about worksite safety so popular?

Professionals have relied on traditional safety practices for decades. When did you first realize those methods weren’t enough to prevent serious injuries and fatalities?

What inspired you to do this type of research and create the CSRA?

Who is buying the book?

What are the biggest takeaways from the book?

What do you see as the biggest barrier to adopting this evidence-based research?

What's next for you?

Off

CUE magazine: A big fix

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Construction Safety Summit highlights latest research to keep workers safe

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�鶹��Ѱ�����Boulder hosts inaugural construction safety summit

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�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder hosts inaugural construction safety summit