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.
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.
The guideline will be used by the National Institute for Building Sciences (NIBS) as its Total Building Commissioning Process Guideline. It is the foundation for a series of commissioning guidelines dealing with specific disciplines (HVAC&R, envelope, lighting and fire protection) to be issued by ASHRAE and NIBS.
For more information, go to www.ashrae.org.
