FEMA supports the 34th Annual Building Safety Month

FEMA supports the 34th Annual Building Safety Month

This May, FEMA is supporting the 34^th Annual Building Safety Month (BSM) to promote the importance of high building standards, protecting the environment, and saving energy. 

BSM is a public awareness campaign founded by the International Code Council (ICC). The campaign focuses on public outreach and education to increase the overall safety and sustainability of buildings through the adoption of model building codes and promotion of code enforcement. An array of theme-related community events, safety demonstrations, and educational outreach activities take place during BSM. The overarching theme of BSM isBuilding Safety: Maximizing Resilience, Minimizing Risks. This theme is supported by weekly building safety sub-themes:

• May 5-11, 2014: Keeping Fire in Its Place
• May 12-18, 2014: Helping Homeowners Weather the Storm
• May 19-25, 2014: Surround Your House with Safety
• May 26-31, 2014: Building A Brighter, More Efficient Tomorrow

For the fourth consecutive year, President Obama has proclaimed May as National Building Safety Month to underscore that safe building codes and standards have an essential role in decreasing the effects of disasters. As is articulated in Presidential Policy Directive/ PPD-8, National Preparedness, as well as PPD-21, Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience, building safety, fire prevention, and energy codes and standards help achieve disaster resilience for our Nation.

Our Nation’s building safety, fire prevention, and energy codes and standards play a critical role in maintaining and ensuring the safety of our buildings and enable our Nation to better prepare, respond, recover, and mitigate from all hazards. Strong building safety, fire prevention, and energy codes and standards also puts the Nation in a better position to deal with future challenges, such as climate change. FEMA supports ICC's BSM as it strives to help communities reduce the impacts of natural disasters by promoting the importance of high building standards, protecting the environment, and saving energy.

For more information on FEMA’s Building Science Branch, please visit http://www.fema.gov/building-science. For more information on Building Safety Month, visit www.buildingsafetymonth.org.