At Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative, the focus on safety is consistent, repetitious and endorsed by leadership at the cooperative.

That recipe resulted in the co-op winning the 2023 President's Safety Award, given to the electric cooperatives in South Carolina with the fewest OSHA recordable accidents. Among Blue Ridge Electric's 167 employees, only one suffered an injury that resulted in lost time at work last year.

"We deliver the message every week," says David Black, manager of safety and loss control. "Safety is one of those things that you've just got to go our and preach it."

Blue Ridge is the only electric cooperative in the state that holds weekly safety meetings. Black follows up with frequent visits to crews in the field to "make sure they're doing what they're supposed to be doing." But Black says the co-op's strong culture of safety starts at the top with "buy-in" from CEO Jim Lovinggood and the rest of the leadership team.

"We're proud of our safety record here," says Lovinggood. "It's something we take very seriously. We don't thing we're more perfect than anyone else, but boy, we've worked at it."

However, Black says the winner's plaque they received isn't the goal.

"It's great that we won and I'm excited about it, but it's not about winning an award," Black says. "It's about going home at the end of to see your family."