The Business Case: Adopting a North American Commissioning Strategy

“Commissioning: No More Zombie Controls” was written in a nontechnical voice such that people and business leaders in our communities could learn that the commissioning process is an excellent investment that is critical for achieving building performance and has huge potential to reduce green house gas emissions.

Evan Mills, Ph.D. scientist at Lawrence Berkley Labs, talks about commissioning as a “Potent Means” of reducing energy dependence, creating jobs and achieving cash on cash returns of 91% to 23% based upon a study of 643 commissioned buildings. In his words, “these findings demonstrate that commissioning is the single most cost effective strategy for reducing energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions today”. 

At a recent conference “Getting Green Done in Saskatchewan”, Daman McFall, a maintenance engineer from the University of Illinois, spoke of their Retro-Commissioning program in a presentation called “Saving the Planet Two Buildings at a Time”.  Daman and his team were able to save $350,000 to $550,000 per year in each of four facilities with paybacks averaging 1.1 years. 

In extreme cases, like the Government of Saskatchewan Young Offenders facility, fixing some “Zombie Controls” on a heat recovery device that had been problematic since day one, avoided the need for a planned project tendered at $1.7M.  

And the stories could go on forever!

One should stop and think about why this amazing investment has not been discovered.   Is it because the engineers that know about commissioning have a difficult time communicating the tremendous impact of commissioning on a buildings performance?  Or it is because commissioning just seems too good to be true with returns of averaging 50%? Or, is it because only a few people understand how they can use commissioning to leverage huge gains in performance with a relatively small investment.

Knowing that commissioning needs to be a mandatory process for all new and existing buildings, because it is the single best investment available in the building industry, prompted me to write this article with hope that it can start a movement.  This movement could be called the “North American Commissioning Strategy” or if you prefer the “The Elimination of Those Pesky Half Dead Zombie Controls” 

The motivation for this movement is to eliminate approximately 10% of all Green House emissions.  By “Getting Green Done” and by taking advantage of a great investment, we will have accomplished an amazing feat.

Please join me in the Half Dead Zombie Control dance.  It takes someone like you to join in so that others will follow.  When we do the Zombie Dance together we will attract other dancers and pretty soon we will create a movement that will be good for business, good for the planet, and good for our children. http://bit.ly/t47LHo

If you know the Prime Minister of Canada, or any other influential person that wants to make a BIG difference in the world please share these facts with them.

Cowritten by: Rob Sentis, PM & Storyteller