Editor's Note: The 2026 class of America's Safety Companies will be recognized Tuesday, September 22, during a live webinar beginning at 2:00 PM (EDT). More information about the webinar can be found at the registration site for How to Create and Sustain a World-Class Safety Culture: Insights from America's Safest Companies of 2026.

Cushman & Wakefield - Global Occupier Services

Integrated Facilities Management

Chicago, IL

6,700 employees | 300 sites | 39 EHS professionals

Cushman & Wakefield – Global Occupier Services takes a holistic approach to safety across its operations. The company has developed a global 360° EHS operating model based on three pillars:

• leadership is accountable, proactive, informed and knowledgeable;
• systems are streamlined, consistent, integrated and applied; and
• culture is just and fair, reporting, informed, learning, flexible and trusting.

The results speak for themselves. Cushman & Wakefield hasn’t had any OSHA violations since June 2016 and, in 2025, boasted a lost time incident rate and total recordable incident rate that was over 80% lower than the industry average.

“Our commitment to EHS excellence is based on the simple proposition that meeting or exceeding objectives is an essential requirement for achieving success in complex business environments,” says Kenyon Brenish, senior managing director of global EHS.

Cushman & Wakefield, which was previously named one of America’s Safest Companies of 2020, believes that a positive safety culture begins with visible leadership ownership.

The company encourages managers and leaders to observe work being performed at all steps of the process by conducting walk throughs (CWALKs) to increase employee hazard awareness, improve management safety skills and promote employee commitment to safety. All positive and constructive outcomes are recorded, and any issues that cannot be immediately resolved are noted for follow-up. The company tracks CWALKS as a leading indicator and reports them monthly.

The company also uses a risk assessment tool to identify hazards before work begins. These portable “check sheets,” internally called Take5s, help employees when starting a task for the first time, resuming a task or beginning a task that has been recently altered; they may also be used when working on tasks not covered by a formal Job Hazard Analysis (JHA).

All on-site account team members participate in Cushman & Wakefield’s proprietary training that emphasizes ownership, proactive behaviors, accountability and addresses experience gaps in real-time.

To help safety keep improving, the company holds an annual EHS summit, and the entire team attends the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) national conference each year. The team also meets regularly to discuss EHS metrics, programs and projects; internal audits; regulatory updates; EHS management reviews; training requirements; and strategies for improvements.

“C&W Global Occupier Services (GOS) is proud to operate an industry-leading EHS management system that encompasses both our corporate offices and managed site portfolios,” Brenish says. “This system integrates comprehensive policies and procedures, aligns with legislation and industry best practices, and addresses a variety of hazards associated with our business operations.”