"commend using" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
You can use it when you want to express approval or praise toward someone for their use of something, like a skill, method or strategy. For example, "I commend using technology to develop more sustainable methods of energy production."
Sometimes a piece is commended for using humor to make whatever point there is to be made: a piece of bronze turned into a cardboard box or some ironically-placed grassy knoll.
The authors are to be commended for using a fact-based approach, although there is occasional preaching.
The authors have to be commended for using a long-term, clinically relevant model that, moreover, addresses a variety of putative mechanisms.
First of all, the authors have to be commended for using an experimental design that nicely fulfills the criteria of a clinically relevant model, namely (a) lacking resuscitation led to 100% mortality, (b) treatment began 12 hours after the initial aggression, and (c) included antibiotics, protocol-guided mechanical ventilation, fluid resuscitation, and vasopressor treatment.
He commended officers for "using this practice even more effectively".
But Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, commended Resource for using bottles that contain 50 percent recycled plastic.
Israeli settlers commended Friedman for "using facts to describe the reality in Judea and Samaria," the Israeli government's term for the West Bank.
Mr. Nail also commended Forbes for using drive-time radio, which he called a potentially "very effective medium," but warned that the site faced steep competitive challenges.
Alex Macpherson of The Guardian found Miguel's occasional "appeal to indie tropes" balanced by "genuinely thoughtful songwriting", and commended him for using his commercial breakthrough "as a springboard to radically change course".
Chicago Tribune writer Greg Kot commended Gaye for using "the multi-tracked vocals perfected on What's Going On, this time to convey his most intimate desires", commenting that "while the album is replete with erotic imagery, both implied and explicit, it is also as much preoccupied with distance and unfulfilled need".
