Issue link: http://digital.corporatepress.com/i/445610
40 | january/february 2015 | Facilities Manager PURPOSE A Sustainable Performance Program, also known as Ongoing Commissioning or "Continuous Commissioning ® ," is a process intended to sustain and even continuously improve the system performance of a facility over time. The purpose of this report is to demonstrate the benefits of implementing a Sustainable Performance Program at Emory University. The goal of such a program is to achieve the following benefits: • Ensure that a facility's utility consumption is in alignment with its baseline design, and avoid performance degradation over the life cycle of the system. • Strive to improve building baseline performance by imple- menting engineer-led monitoring and optimization. • Maintain the current functional requirements throughout the life of the facility. Ensure systems will effectively and optimally serve repurposed spaces. STATE OF COMMISSIONING AT EMORY UNIVERSITY NEW CONSTRUCTION COMMISSIONING Emory University was ahead of the curve as a university when it began implementing commissioning in its new construction projects beginning in the latter part of the 1990s. It was approxi- mately the year 2000 when a full-time position was dedicated to the process of managing Emory's commissioning activities. With the requirement of all new large capital projects obtaining the USGBC's LEED™ Silver certification, in which commission- ing is not only a credit but a prerequisite, it is evident that both Emory and the USGBC holds commissioning in high regard as a beneficial and sustainable process. The process of commissioning is now being applied to not only the large capital projects seeking LEED certification, but also to a greater proportion of the maintenance rehabilitation and repair projects that entail significant mechanical, electrical, and plumbing components. EXISTING BUILDING COMMISSIONING Existing building commissioning had not been extensively applied at Emory. The Goizueta Business School (GBS), which was originally built and commissioned in 1997, was recommis- sioned in 2003, then underwent a second round of Re-Cx due to continued low performance operations and high annual energy consumption. The Re-Cx project for the GBS was being performed in- house by Engineering Services. The building was selected for Re-Cx given its energy consumption was about 165 MBtu/sq ft versus the newer GBS Foundation building operating at 70 MBtu/sq ft, which was built and commissioned in 2005. A num- ber of findings have been made during the investigation of GBS Time (years) Energy Use (Btu/sf ) —— Energy trend —— Energy trend with Re-Commisioning (Re-Cx) —— Energy trend with Sustainable Performance Program (SPP) Emory University's Sustainable Performance Program