Corporate Information
Holistic Commissioning™ Can Generate a Higher ROI
The greatest savings for a project occur in the design-review process, which reduces the risk of change orders and design mistakes. CxGBS pioneered Holistic Commissioning, which goes beyond standard commissioning procedures by starting in the pre-design phase, and following through with design/construction and post occupancy evaluation for a building’s life cycle. Following are excerpts from Jay Enck’s interview with Green Building News about Holistic Commissioning:
Q: What is Holistic Commissioning?
A: Holistic commissioning integrates sustainability while making sure that the quality-oriented process is delivered with the owner's expectations for the facility. It includes the building envelope — building-envelope failure is one of the main reasons for lawsuits against architects — and mechanical and electrical systems, which affect greenhouse gases and indoor environmental quality. Depending on the wishes of the owner, commissioning sometimes includes security and other aspects.
Our Holistic commissioning starts in pre-design with the development of the owner's criteria, and then it goes on through the design phase with quality control.
Q: Is holistic commissioning much different than the standard commissioning process?
A: It starts in the pre-design phase, but it also follows through with design/construction and post-occupancy. Facilities are re-commissioned about every three years as the efficiency of the building declines. It includes verification, helping with the performance, and educating operators in how to maintain the performance of the building. When there is a change in staff, we are here to bring new people up to speed. It's a continuous holistic process that goes through the entire life of the building.
Q: Whereas, standard commissioning just occurs toward the end of construction?
A: Well, there are a lot of different definitions for commissioning in the marketplace. The majority of commissioning is what LEED calls fundamental commissioning and what the industry calls construction-phase commissioning, which is at the end of the project when you test the equipment to see if it meets the performance and design requirements. But, what is missed — which is really the greatest savings for a project — is the design-review process that reduces the risk of change orders and design mistakes.
Q: The holistic-commissioning process sounds like it consumes more time. Is there a big difference in price compared to standard commissioning?
A: It costs a little more, and more effort is required, but it actually has a higher return on investment because when you start in pre-design, you establish the objectives and criteria, including LEED and sustainable goals. The teams are on a really strong foundation and they know exactly what direction they are going from the very beginning.
Because you give owners quality assurance and reviews of the process, you are helping the client tighten up their documents so they can have a much better bid because they are more defined. If you have a set of documents that is not well defined, the contractor just adds money.
Q: Where do clients who have a set budget usually make cuts to create funding for commissioning?
A: If they have a little bit of faith — and usually if they have been down the path before — there is money set aside for change orders that could be used. You really don't have to cut because the process can pay for itself even before the end of construction. There is an upfront cost, but the return is very quick.
When we do the building envelope and mechanical/electrical commissioning, including LEED certifications, on projects of about $30 million or more, the cost is about 7/10 of a percent. There is an economy of scale. For $5- $8 million projects, it is probably closer to 1.5 percent.
Q: You have worked on several different types of facilities. Is there much variation in how you address different buildings?
A: The process doesn't change. What you look at specifically with commissioning is interaction between systems. You need to look at what happens from one system to another when failure occurs.
Q: What is the most difficult type of facility to work with?
A: It really doesn't matter. The difficulty usually occurs when we are hired late in the process. We certainly like more complex projects. Because we are engineers, they are a little more challenging and fun.
If the commissioning process starts late, there could be problems with designers and contractors. Another difficulty is if significant personnel changes occur in the operations department before the training period is completed.
Q: Is the training usually more intensive than for regular commissioning?
A: Absolutely. In a regular set of documents, you typically don't know what the level of training is and they don't address the specific needs of operations and maintenance staff and their specific level of competence. It is just one or two sentences.
With holistic commissioning you define exactly what the training is and the level of training that is required. There is a different level of training for school districts and owners, depending on how many buildings they have and their size. You really need to hone training to the specific owner's needs.
Q: Is the market for holistic commissioning growing? Where does the market stand?
A: Long-term owners — state and federal governments and local municipalities — build a building for as long as they can get a useful service life out of it. They were the early adopter because most of them had buildings where they had failures and they didn't want that to happen again. They started with just HVAC and construction-phase commissioning, but during the last 10 years, have shifted to a more holistic approach.
There are not a lot of people that practice holistic commissioning, but there is more every day. It requires a fairly diversified team and if you are doing building envelope and mechanical/electrical, you have to have a much larger team. A lot of test-and-balance firms are entering into commissioning, but their focus is really on HVAC construction-phase commissioning.
For more information about Holistic Commissioning, contact CxGBS, 770-831-6760, www.cxgbs.com