Smith Seckman Reid, Inc. (SSR), a leader among engineering firms in designing, consulting, and commissioning projects has become a founding member of the Energy Management Association (EMA) and has one of the first Energy Management Professionals.

EMA is dedicated to advancing the quality of energy management products and services for the benefit of building owners. Members are certified Energy Management Professionals (EMP), a program that was developed by the AABC Commissioning Group (ACG), the world’s leading association of certified commissioning authorities.

“It’s great for SSRCx (a division of SSR) to be recognized as a founding member since we are one of the largest commissioning firms in the country,” said Steven Metzgar, LEED AP BD+C, CxA, CxA-EMP, Senior Commissioning Authority for SSRCx. “This is a good way to create new relationships in our industry. I am hoping to become active in the Association and increase notoriety across the country for SSRCx.”

Before ACG introduced the Energy Management Professional certification and Energy Management Guidelines, there was not a comprehensive process for energy management.

“This process could be very time consuming and confusing to the client,” said Metzgar. “ACG was already, a leader in the industry, it made sense for them to develop a good simple process for companies to follow “

ACG stepped in and developed the Energy Management Guidelines, and a commissioning-based approach to energy management has been adopted by EMA. The process-oriented approach is designed to assist building owners in achieving energy savings while maintaining optimum building performance. The method is data-driven as opposed to making assumptions and calculations based on unreliable information. It allows the client and the team members of an energy management project to have clear understanding of what the end goal is to be achieved. This helps everyone in the process to stay focus on the end goal, which is to help the client save energy, as well as improving the operation of the equipment.

For more information on the EMA, please visit: http://www.energymanagementassociation.org/