Commissioning for Sustainability

Commissioning is an invaluable process in the engineering world, helping to ensure that buildings perform as intended. It's especially crucial with systems that use sustainable design principles, as guided by the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.

"Commissioning typically helps to ensure good indoor environmental quality, reduce energy and water consumption, and improves how well the building is operated, all of which are the intent of LEED," Jay Enck, a member of ASHRAE's technical committee on building commissioning, said.

Working from this mindset, ASHRAE has released Guideline 0-2005, The Commissioning Process, which describes how to verify that a facility and its systems meet the owner's requirements for a project, including those geared toward sustainable goals.

The National Institute for Building Sciences (NIBS) will use 0-2005 as its Total Building Commissioning Process Guideline, the foundation for a series of commissioning guidelines dealing with specific disciplines such as HVAC, lighting and fire protection.