Are you Cx certifiable? Who isn't?

UPDATE: March 26: ASHRAE has
officially announced the start of the program

ASHRAE will be unveiling its certification program for
commissioning (Cx) in June. In doing so, it will become the sixth
organization offering a Cx certification credential. Certifications
are currently offered by Associated Air Balance Council
(AABC), Assoc. of Energy
Engineers (AEE), Building
Commissioning Assoc. (BCA), National Environmental
Balancing Bureau (NEBB), and University of Wisconsin-Madison
(UWM).

Adding to the pile, some of these organizations have more than one
certification credential. UWM, for example, has three (Cx
authority, process manager, and technical support) and NEBB has two
(commissioning and retrocommissioning). 

 Having been the executive director of the BCA during a
sabbatical from publishing, I understand the rationale for having a
program for certifying Cx providers. An organization raises its
prestige by establishing qualifications for professionals and
accrediting practitioners. Revenues are created for testing and
training, plus a modest increase in sales of materials that would
help candidates prepare for the training and exam. And let’s
not forget fees for periodic recertification. These revenues
aren’t huge, but they if they merely pay for the program
costs, then they’re worth it for the prestige factor and turf
protection. 

And the intent of certification is honorable—to establish
baseline criteria for quality services and thus, in an emerging
industry, keep the wannabes and shysters out.
But with six certifying organizations offering credentials with a
wide disparity in eligibility requirements and scope of Cx
involvement, the movement toward certification has let the wannabes
and shysters in. Few owners will do the homework needed to decipher
the differences between the higher quality certifications and the
lower quality certifications. 

Thus, certification has fractured the public understanding of what
commissioning is, who does it, and what constitutes quality Cx
services. Consider the disparity in qualifications among the
certification programs: Required experience ranges from none to
three years of leading Cx projects. Some require references; most
do not. The only thing all programs have in common is the passing
of an exam, and exams are a poor way to assess a person’s
ability to perform on projects in the field. 

Additionally, certifications can commoditize Cx. Take a veteran,
highly successful Cx provider who refuses to become certified but
can commission everything from a biosafety lab to an office
building. Such a veteran would cost more than a much less
experienced, but certified, practitioner. An owner looking for a Cx
provider might think the certification “guarantees” a
qualified provider and take the less expensive route. Where Cx
certification is required, commoditization will surely happen.

If certification truly is needed and helpful to the industry, AABC,
AEE, ASHRAE, BCA, NEBB, and UWM need to hash out a single
certification program.

Note: Visit the California
Commissioning Collaborative for an outline of  the five
current commissioning certification programs. Here’s a link to
the ASHRAE web
page on commissioning certification.