Building commissioning: Maps, gaps and directions

Building commissioning has made great strides since the early 1900s in gaining acceptance as a critical quality assurance component of building construction and operation. Public recognition of commissioning can be gauged by the growing and increasingly diversified attendance at national and regional commissioning conferences and seminars and more frequent mention of commissioning in trade journals. Though much momentum exists, commissioning remains an outsider to the traditional building industry. To integrate commissioning into the mainstream, the US Department of Energy is developing a national strategy to promote commissioning. This strategy, developed through interviews with over 50 stakeholders and a process of public review and comment, attempts to overcome obstacles that have impeded commissioning from becoming business as usual.