ATLANTA - According to the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), commissioning can help ensure that the sustainable development principles contained in building rating systems, such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), perform as intended.

"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," said Jay Enck, a member of ASHRAE's technical committee on building commissioning.

A new guideline from ASHRAE, Guideline 0-2005, "The Commissioning Process," describes how to verify that a facility and its systems meet the owner's project requirements.

Those requirements also define sustainable development goals and how the building will function before designers begin the design process.

To keep costs at a minimum, the design team must understand what they are tasked with accomplishing, which is provided by the requirements.

"Attaining LEED certification can be easy or nearly impossible depending on when the goals are identified and the level of experience of the team," Enck said.

Publication date: 06/06/2005