Overview

	The list of activities associated with building commissioning has grown rapidly in the last few years. From tests and measurements to verify the savings of energy-efficiency measures installed in existing buildings to consideration of commissioning requirements during design, and even pre-design phases of new construction, owners and building managers are realizing the value of commissioning. The IDEA of building commissioning has taken on much broader meaning than just performing functional testing of mechanical equipment and electrical systems in place.
	This progress is based on many experiences and case studies of commissioning individual energy-saving and performance-increasing measures and learning not only how to install and test those measures but also how these individual measures can interact to provide synergistic results, either good or bad. The expanded perspective of building commissioning "best practices" obviously emphasizes the good interactions and addresses methods and procedures to obtain them.
They realize the high rate of return on investment for building commissioning.	The comprehensive perspective of building performance that is aimed at installing and adjusting the individual components of buildings--lighting, HVAC, building envelope, fenestration, landscaping--as an ensemble requires whole building commissioning thinking from design through construction, occupancy, and O & M. Owners which see these benefits of commissioning quickly absorb the ideas and incorporate the thinking into a TQM program or quality assurance program. Building commissioning activities are valued most by owner-manager-operators with a long-term interest in the capital investment of their building assets. They realize the high rate of return on investment for building commissioning.
The good news to their clients is they receive better buildings. . .	These high rates of return on investment realized on commissioning services provide opportunities for architects, and other design professionals, to expand the scope of services they provide and expand their marketplace. The good news to their clients is they receive better buildings through the design and delivery process than they normally could expect, and the good news to the design professionals is they are rewarded for assuming the responsibilities, and risks, that the clients think they are paying for, and they gain the learning from the verification of their designs.
	After decades of increasing fragmentation in the building industries, including the creation of many new professionals competing for the owners' attention and budget, building commissioning activities start the pendulum swinging in the other direction by showing the benefits of integrating the individual efforts of all the professionals on a project into a comprehensive team with clear agreed upon goals for the project. Owners want someone to take the responsibility for their projects and building programs and deliver the quality for which they are willing to pay.
. . .it opens new opportunities for architects to obtain greater control of the quality of their delivered building projects. . .	Whole building commissioning can be proven to pay for itself many times over, in both direct and indirect ways, and it opens new opportunities for architects to obtain greater control of the quality of their delivered building projects and to establish higher value for their design services. By focussing on building performance as a primal concern for design professionals, the goals of the client-owner and design team become more coincident, and building design cannot help but reflect this enhanced interest in quality in both design aesthetics and construction quality.

Other stories of interest from the South Florida Sustainability Conference