The Urban Land Institute (ULI) in their 2008 Emerging Trends in Real Estate says that real estate developers and investors are gravitating to greater environmental consciousness because it is good for business and marketing. “In other words, green makes sense if green makes cents”. One element of sustainability and going green is building commissioning. Basic building commissioning is a prerequisite for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) rating system and you can earn an additional point for enhanced commissioning. Commissioning has been around for a long time and has been used by many sophisticated owners to reduce cost and enhance building quality. Knowledgeable owners realize the importance of commissioning because of the economic benefits gained from the resultant energy cost savings, operating cost savings, and the improvements in building comfort and indoor air quality.

Historically, commissioning was the process of testing and balancing the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems of a building according to known standards prior to acceptance by the building owner. Today The American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) defines commissioning as "…the process of ensuring that systems are designed, installed, functionally tested, and capable of being operated and maintained to perform in conformity with the design intent… Commissioning begins with planning and includes design, construction, start-up, acceptance and training, and can be applied throughout the life of the building." Modern building commissioning has evolved into a more formal and rigorous quality control process for verifying that all of the building’s systems perform as they were designed and meet the operational needs of the owner. Modern commissioning recognizes the integrated nature of building systems and how their interactions impact sustainability, workplace productivity, and security.

Commissioning has different meanings to different people. Commissioning can range from the simple commissioning of a single piece of equipment to the commissioning of all building systems and their interactions. Some typical types of commissioning include:

• Basic Commissioning – Basic commissioning is functional testing of systems and equipment at the time of start up. While this type of commissioning strives to see that the systems are installed and operate as specified they do not ensure that they were the right systems for the owner’s long term plan for the facility.

• LEED® Certification Commissioning – The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) has recognized the importance of commissioning for the reduction of energy usage in high performance buildings. The certification process requires fundamental commissioning as a pre-requisite to LEED® certification. The LEED® certification process offers an additional credit for enhanced commissioning which involves a more rigorous commissioning approach involving additional systems documentation, the addition of other systems to the commissioning process (such as water systems), as well as additional re-commissioning documentation. This LEED® requirement includes the selection of an independent commissioning authority (CxA) to oversee the development of documentation and supervise the development of the owner’s project requirements and the basis of design as prepared by the owner and design team respectively.

• Total Building Commissioning - Total Building Commissioning is the Public Building Service (PBS) process for achieving, validating and documenting that the performance of the total building and its systems meet the design intent and requirements of the owner. The National Conference on Building Commissioning has established an official definition of ‘Total Building Commissioning’ as a “Systematic process of assuring by verification and documentation, from the design phase to a minimum of one year after construction, that all facility systems perform interactively in accordance with the design documentation and intent, and in accordance with the owner’s operational needs, including preparation of operation personnel.”

• Re-commissioning – Portland Energy Conservation, Inc. (PECI) defines -as a periodic commissioning event. Commissioning personnel reapply the original commissioning procedures in order to keep the building operating according to design or current operating needs.

• Retro-commissioning – Retro-commissioning is defined by PECI as a systematic investigation process for improving and optimizing a building’s O&M procedures. Retro-commissioning occurs post-construction and typically focuses on energy-using equipment. It may or may not emphasize bringing a building back to its original design intent.

• On-going Commissioning – The International Energy Agency (IEA) explains on-going commissioning as a process conducted continually for the purposes of maintaining, improving and optimizing the performance of building systems after initial commissioning or retro commissioning.

• Continuous Commissioning® – Continuous Commissioning® is Energy Systems Labs (ESL), a division of Texas A&M University, on-going process to resolve operating problems, improve comfort, optimize energy use, and identify retrofits for existing commercial and institutional building and central plant facilities.

Commissioning at Goetting & Associates has evolved over a 25 year period as it has in the A/E/C industry. It began with the creation of the Building Systems Management Group (BSM) in 1982. This group focused primarily on re-commissioning, retro-commissioning, on-going commissioning, and continuous commissioning. The clients consisted mainly of existing building owners such as GPM (two tenant office buildings), Methodist Hospital (a full service patient hospital), several high rise condominiums, Oak Hills Medical Office building, etc.

In the early 1990’s we added building commissioning to new projects. This commissioning consisted of in-house design review, specification writing for the commissioning of the MEP systems and the actual pre-functional and functional commissioning of the MEP systems during construction. Some of the projects included in this genus were a 35,000 sf biomedical research laboratory complex with Bio-safety Level (BSL) 2, 3, and 4 labs for the Southwest Foundation, a 800,000 sf bank services building, and a 1 million sf home office building expansion for USAA.

In the twenty-first century we have continued to provide the commissioning services of the 1980’s and the 1990’s but have seen a dramatic increase in full blown independent commissioning service for clients such as Transwestern, Rackspace, Citigroup, the Port of San Antonio, and the Corps of Engineers. Over the last several years owners have increasingly realized the benefits of independent commissioning and LEED® accreditation. Benefits such as lower utility bills, improved environmental health and comfort, improved employee productivity, lower maintenance and operation costs, and improved occupancy safety are compelling. When coupled with a broad public awareness of sustainability and green concepts you have a persuasive argument for commissioning.

Commissioning has become such a large part of Goetting & Associates business that we have renamed our BSM group to Building Systems Management and Commissioning (BSMC). BSMC, like our keystone MEP consulting design services, is built on the basic concept of meeting the client’s needs. We realize that every client has their own specific needs and goals and that one size does not fit all. Therefore, we spend focused time upfront getting to know the client and finding out what his real needs and goals are. We furnish everything from Continuous Commissioning to being the client’s Commissioning agent (CxA) depending on the client and his needs.

Typically we have found that existing facilities benefit most from retro or continuous commissioning. Depending on the mission critical nature of the building and the owner’s inclination towards being green and sustainable we most commonly see LEED® equivalent commissioning, LEED® basic and enhanced commissioning, or total building commissioning. Full independent commissioning agent services are best suited for large, mission critical projects and includes:

• A determination of the project requirements based on the owners needs and goals

• Design phase verification of the design concepts and development of commissioning documents

• Pre-functional and functional testing to verify that systems work as they were projected

• Warranty period follow up to see that the owners representatives are trained to operate and maintain the systems for the owners best ROI

• Proper documentation through the entire process.

Many owners have gone to a LEED® equivalent approach which meets all of the requirements of one of the LEED® certification levels, but without the expense of the rigorous documentation and submittal to the USGBC. This allows them to show a green consciousness and to take advantage of all of the economic benefits of a well designed and commissioned project and saves them much of the documentation cost, however does not earn a LEED® certification.

Commissioning has evolved over the years and because of its’ benefits to owners, users, and the environment it has become and will continue to be a very viable tool for many projects.