The Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA) has scheduled the latest Global Lifting Awareness Day (GLAD) for Thursday 2 July 2026. This year’s theme is: ‘Not all lifting equipment is created equal.’

April 14, 2026 | ILH Magazine | By Staff

The seventh staging of the event, powered by LEEA, its members and supporting industry stakeholders, will culminate in publication of a guidance document that procurement professionals can use to source lifting equipment.

GLAD is a widely celebrated day where manufacturers, suppliers and end users are among those that share material that promotes safe and high quality load lifting. Social media posts, videos, articles, and in-person activity will again be bound together by the hashtag, #GLAD2026.

LEEA also leads independent annual campaigns that deliver meaningful content aligned with its vision of lifting and height safety industries, which have eliminated accidents, injuries and fatalities; and its mission to educate, influence and enable so that best practice is everyday action. This year is upheld by a programme to help the industry describe its products clearly and buy them wisely.

Matt Barber, director of membership at LEEA, said: “GLAD is a globally recognised concept that stands on firm footings in its purpose to raise awareness about the challenges facing lifting industries across the world. LEEA has always sought to use the day to intensify our focus on a campaign message, whether that be addressing skills shortages and shaping tomorrow’s workforce, or reminding industry that not all lifting equipment is created equal. If we can leave industry with a meaningful takeaway, it only serves to give greater meaning and purpose to members’ and end users’ ongoing efforts to celebrate their roles in our sector.”

He added: “The most consequential decision in a lifting operation is often made weeks before the lift takes place, at the point of purchase. The sling, the hoist, the shackle, the lifting accessory; what was specified, what documentation came with it, and whether the person who bought it had the information to make the right call. When that decision is made in an information vacuum, the risk doesn’t disappear. It gets transferred to the people doing the work.”

LEEA is bifocal in conducting a spring survey campaign, with product suppliers and those making procurement decisions central to the body of research. Manufacturers use a multitude of description conventions to bring lifting equipment to market. That ambiguity means procurement professionals cannot reliably distinguish between a product engineered for demanding operational use and one designed for occasional application — and LEEA has the accident data to prove it.

LEEA’s Barber said: “Our end goal is to bring suppliers and buyers together on 2 July to make a collective pledge to do better.”