Can the envelope consultant of a project also provide Building Envelope commissioning services?
The envelope consultant is not part of the design team and only reviews the envelope design made by the architect. 'Choosing an appropriate CxA' section of the credit page on the USGBC website notes:
For projects pursuing Option 2, envelope commissioning, the building envelope commissioning agent (BeCxA) may be completely independent of the lead CxA, and oversight of envelope commissioning activities by the lead CxA is not required. However, in this case, the BeCxA must meet all credit requirements for the Commissioning authority. Specifically:
- The BeCxA must have documented envelope commissioning process experience on at least two building projects with a similar scope of work.
- The BeCxA may be a qualified employee of the owner, an independent consultant, or a disinterested subcontractor of the design team.
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5909 thumbs up
September 7, 2017 - 9:18 am
Maybe. LEED tends to bend over backward to allow this kind of thing.
One could certainly argue that the envelop designer is not a disinterested subcontractor. It would be like having the mechanical designer commission his own design. I'm pretty sure that they don't find any design issues.
IMO this is just not good practice even if it is technically allowed.
Scott Bowman
LEED FellowIntegrated Design + Energy Advisors, LLC
LEEDuser Expert
519 thumbs up
September 7, 2017 - 10:28 am
I am not sure that they bend over backwards as much as don't look in the first place, Marcus. That being said I have been hearing in the last month or so more focus and more review comments coming from Cx credits, so it is my hope there will be more QA on these credits.
To your question, in my mind, it is all about scope. Enhanced Commissioning is all about peer review and trying to improve designs, so if your envelope consultant is truly only reviewing, commenting, suggesting, etc, then I think you are fine. So then it is just all envelope commissioning. Most envelope consultants have a very healthy review component for good reason...there is a lot of value to improving the process with this robust examination of a critical part of the project. However, many envelope consultants are much more than review. They are design team members with specific drawing and specification requirements to bring the envelope the architect has designed to life. This would be a direct conflict of interest, so would not be good practice or complying with the intent of the requirement.
Elizabeth Cassin
Associate Principal and Unit ManagerWiss, Janney, Elstner
LEEDuser Expert
18 thumbs up
September 7, 2017 - 11:54 am
It depends on the role of the consultant. Is the consultant only providing comments and recommendations to the design team (peer review) or is the consultant acting in the role of design-assist (developing details, authoring specifications, etc.)? If the former, I agree with Scott that the consultant could become the BECx Provider. If the latter, I also agree with Scott that it's a conflict for the consultant to be reviewing his or her own design.