Coordinating Envelope Testing Before It Coordinates You The building envelope is the one system you can't easily service after the fact, and that sets it apart from almost everything else in a building. Mechanical systems get tuned, controls get adjusted, filters get changed on a schedule, but the enclosure mostly just stands in the [...]
Beyond the Bottom Line: Finding the Commissioning Provider Best Matched to Your Project Imagine you've sent out a request for proposals for commissioning services on your next building project. The bids come back across a wide range of fees. The temptation is to sort by price and work from the bottom up. But before [...]
Sherlock Holmes, Cx Agent In building construction, so many issues can be hidden from plain view — sometimes literally behind brick walls — and often no one even knows they’re there, until the day they become a problem. That’s where we come in. At SES, we work with a wide range of building designs [...]
Most of what I’ve learned in this industry hasn’t come from books or the classroom. A lot of what I’ve learned has come from the field. The field is where the buildings and their systems tell you their real story, where people bring their perspectives and expertise, and where collaboration either comes together or [...]
At Sustainable Engineering Solutions (SES), we’ve built our firm around a simple idea: when you take the time to understand the real "why" behind a project, everything else falls into place. That belief is embodied in what we call The SES Way — a structured yet flexible approach to every service we offer, built [...]
Last Updated: April 23, 2026 Over the last five years, the greater Boston area has made long-term building sustainability a priority. While there is no single solution to create a sustainable community, there are several measures that can be taken to reduce the negative impact of built environments. The desire to mitigate these negative [...]
On April 28, 2025, the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) released LEED version 5. Prior to the latest version, LEED v4 was released in November 2013, with v4.1 following in April 2019. While v4.1 addressed market feedback, improved performance, and expanded LEED’s applicability, LEED v5 has now been released to tackle critical challenges [...]
When Sustainable Engineering Solutions (SES) decided to expand its presence into Massachusetts and Rhode Island, it wasn’t just about adding pins to a map. It was about being closer to our projects, improving collaboration, and delivering the fast, responsive service that defines our approach. But more than that, it was about embracing new opportunities [...]
Non-residential facilities typically have multiple cost components on their electric energy bills. The two largest components are the consumption charge (kilowatt hours consumed over the billing period) and the demand charge. The demand charge is based on the amount of instantaneous power the building draws at any given time, typically within any 15-minute period [...]
After nearly three decades of leading building commissioning projects across commercial, healthcare, and education sectors, I've witnessed firsthand how regular site visits by the Commissioning Authority (CxA) of a project can dramatically improve project outcomes. Here are the five most impactful ways these visits deliver value to clients. # 1. Early Issue Detection Prevents [...]
