A new campaign from the BC Construction Association hopes to build a better work environment on construction sites.

President Chris Atchison says the campaign is similar to the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements that brought attention to the harassment of women in the workplace.

“It’s all about getting the right conversations started and be able to have people call out unacceptable behaviour in a safe way,” he said. “The tag line ‘Don’t Be a Tool’ it’s something that many of us are familiar with.”

“We thought it had an appropriate connotation to construction. It’s going to be come an important part of the entire builders code framework.”

Atchison adds they’ve got a series of animated videos that highlight unacceptable behaviour like harassment, hazing, and bullying in an industry that is 95 per cent male.

“By using these cartoon characters, we are able to bring attention and create some awareness and make it safe for everybody,” he added.

“[We went with cartoons] in order to not make it about any particular gender or any particular underrepresented group, it’s more about the behaviour.”

The campaign was developed by senior leadership at the BCCA, along with Vancouver-based firm Rethink.

“They were also involved with a very successful program helping to alleviate train fatalities in Australia of all things,” Atchison added. “That was a campaign called ‘Dumb Ways to Die.'”

“We have learned from that and we’ve built on that and we’ve come up with our ‘Don’t Be a Tool’ campaign.”

The campaign was launched in time for BC Construction month.