All interviews were conducted by Amici della Terra and Formedil during November & December 2022 and January 2023, in person, via mail, via telephone, or online platforms. Below is the list of people interviewed: Municipality of Florence, Andrea Dreoni M, 54 years old, Engineer - Technical Services Department of the Municipality of Florence Municipality of Greve in Chianti, Simone Coccia, M, 56 years old, Environmental Technical Surveyor, Head of Sector 8 Design, Heritage and Environment Services, Stefano Romiti, M, 58 years old, Councilor for the Environment Municipality of Greve Municipality of Sesto Fiorentino, Chiara Cavallaro, F, 49 years old, Technical Specialist Architect, Serena Barilaro, F, 31 years old, Head of the European Projects and Fundraising Associate Office of the municipalities of Sesto Fiorentino, Campi Bisenzio, Calenzano, Signa and Lastra a Signa Municipality of Campi Bisenzio, Mario Berbi, M, 48 years old, Arch.junior ENEA,( National agency for new technologies, energy and sustainable economic development) Ilaria Bertini, F, 59 years old, Head of Analysis and Evaluation Service for Energy Efficiency Systems ENEA Energy Efficiency Technical Unit University of Padova, Salvatore Amaduzzi, M, 51 years old, Delegate for sustainability University of Padova
Private entities and companies: Lorenzo Bellicini director CRESME (Economic, Sociological and Market Research Center in the Building Industry) Massimo Del Dossi vicepresident innovation and technology ANCE (National Association of Builders) Ing. Valentina Lepore National Park Monti Sibillini Assoambiente, Chicco Testa, M, 70 years old, President of Assoambiente (The Association that represents at national level the private companies that manage environmental services and the Circular Economy companies., Elisabetta Perrotta, F, 52 years old, Director of Assoambiente CET( Tuscany Energy Consortium) , Filippo Stortoni, M, 35 years old, Engineer
The target group is made up of people with many different experiences: as envisaged by the project, many people are included in the Municipal staff, with technical roles, administrative politicians; the presence of national bodies is significant, such as CRESME, ANCE, ENEA, the National Agency for New Technologies, as well as the National Agency for Energy Efficiency, and Assoambiente, which represents at national and Community level the mainly private companies that manage environmental services and the companies of the Circular Economy. The picture that emerges from the interviews is absolutely homogeneous. Italian municipalities, especially small ones, have suffered in the last twenty years from a continuous reduction in personnel, which has reduced their operations, especially having affected technical roles that are difficult to replace. The resulting workload has also prevented the updating of the remaining staff and the few who have been hired. The goal of greater energy efficiency, absolutely present in political programs and shared at all levels, is therefore strongly hindered by the lack of personnel. The lack of personnel (and all the interviewees agree) must be combined with the difficulty of following constantly evolving legislation, just as the technical and financial tools necessary to achieve greater energy efficiency are constantly evolving. however, there are good examples, such as the Municipality of Florence, which has managed to maintain structures capable of facing the challenge of greater efficiency. |
Key areas of investigation | Synthesis of the answers collected |
Challenges and barriers related to the application of public building stock renovation: Technical Legal Institutional Financial
Technical Challenges Legal Challenges Institutional Challenges Financial Challenges
| The most important obstacles for public bodies are mainly two: There is an essential lack of personnel and in particular qualified personnel, due to the cuts in public personnel, who have not been replaced when they leave the collaboration with the institution due to retirement or otherwise. Italian Municipalities in particular have lost about 20% of technicians due to staff reductions; then there is a problem of signature, i.e. of responsibility, for which there is a lack of someone to accompany the administrations in an innovation path since they alone have difficulty taking the initiative. The constant and sudden change of legislation as well as the plurality of rules on which to rely. Lentezza dei procedimenti legata anche a questo coninuo mutamento. These problems particularly affect small municipalities; the Municipality of Florence, on the contrary, manages to maintain a structure that effectively intervenes on energy efficiency and seismic improvement. |
For the private companies that participated in the debate The excessive bureaucratization of processes and the excessive fragmentation of skills are often an obstacle that blocks decision-making processes. It is necessary that the PA is familiar with EPC contracts, and with PPP public-private partnerships |
National and EU strategies related to public building stock renovation Ways to keep informed on with the evolutions and the ever-changing trends | The difference between small and large municipalities also stands out in the degree of information that is available to the technical and political structures: small municipalities claim to be sufficiently informed, even if sometimes the information remains superficial due to lack of time to explore it. The information arrives from ANCI or other entities via email. In Florence, the close collaborative relationship between the P.O. "Planning and Budget, Professional Appointments" and "Administrative and Legal", the Director and the Managers of the Services, are promoted and coordinated projects for the renovation of the public building heritage, also aimed at sustainable development, identifying, for economic sustainability, the most suitable calls for tenders and public announcements for obtaining the necessary financial resources, from regional, state, community or other sources. This activity of information, research, analysis and evaluation of operational, procedural and economic feasibility involves almost every day a large number of employees at various levels, both in the administrative, technical and management fields. |
Private companies and entities claim to keep themselves informed mainly on occasions and on topics that concern them directly, being generally hindered by the complexity of the Italian system. |
Tools (financial, technical etc.) available for PA to facilitate the public building stock renovation application | The Municipality of Florence participates in specific tenders for Regional, State, Community funds or other sources, and draws on other sources of funding such as: sponsorships by organizations or individuals; donations in support of cultural heritage (Art Bonus), in the context of monumental assets and monuments such as Palazzo Vecchio, other historic buildings, museums, churches and convents, city walls, etc.; donations in works; in particular those operated by sports clubs for the redevelopment of football fields, gyms, changing rooms, related services, etc., those operated by private individuals and cultural associations in the cemetery area are noted; public private partnership (project financing), Small municipalities follow the Ministries that issue instruments to support energy efficiency, for example the Conto Termico, the Kyoto Fund for public school building. The hard part for them is keeping up with the tools constantly. |
(Opinions) Do you consider that PA workforce and officials possess enough skills and competences to deal with the challenges and needs we have already talked about | The answers are diversified: some municipalities have the human resources and skills to face the challenge of energy efficiency, but once again the smallest ones say that more resources and an adequate training plan are needed. |
Skills needs are required from PA workforce and officials to engage with public building stock renovation and ways to manage this needs | Technical skills on structures, energy efficiency and systems are required. In small municipalities, planning is often outsourced. The experience gained over the last few years has made it necessary to significantly broaden the knowledge and skills of personnel and officials. In fact, especially as regards the technical area, the personnel must be aware of a plurality of procedural and financial aspects that go beyond the "historical" technical competence. Consequently, the setting up of public building renovation projects must be suitable for the purpose, starting from the planning stage, always keeping in mind the specific source of financing of each work, the consequent monitoring procedure in the case of regional, state, community funds , and the performance indicators to be complied with both in the planning, implementation and final reporting phases. Similarly, administrative personnel must also be aware of the parameters imposed by the regional, state and community fund providers in drafting deeds of any kind; for example, mention is made of the affixing of logos and specific wordings specific to each supplying body in each procedural phase of the works, from planning to reporting. |
Main skills that PA workforce should improve through further training related to public building stock renovation | Public works tenders, CAMs, material certifications, energy saving, financial and technical instruments that encourage renovations. Planning needs too many professionals who cannot be concentrated on personnel, at least in small towns. Therefore, the staff should above all have expertise on financing, on the methods of requesting and reporting The issues that the technical departments are called upon to address in the short and long term, are strongly based on the restructuring of the public building heritage, all framed in a changing regulatory context, and necessarily having to explore all possible sources of financing, and with them the related monitoring and reporting systems. Consequently, the areas in which to develop functional training for this purpose are initially the following: characteristics and management of national and community funds; characteristics of financing instruments such as public-private partnerships and sponsorships; technical insights on new issues such as D.N.S.H. (Do No Significant Harm) and C.A.M. (Minimum Environmental Criteria); introduction, purpose and methods of use of the B.I.M. (Building Information Modelling). |
Ways to be ensured by authorities that the training needs for PA staff and officials are up to date Available training offers specializing in the subject matter | Here the difference between small and large Municipalities appears even greater: With a view to increasing the knowledge of the personnel of the Administration of the Municipality of Florence, the same has established the "Personnel Training Plan of the Municipality of Florence", which constitutes the three-year planning document for all training activities aimed at personnel, in line with the principles and obligations established by current legislation. For small municipalities, there are many courses that can be attended to update but there is no time to do so, when there is simply a lack of knowledge of courses in the area. |
The companies consulted do not have a specialized training offer available on the subject |
Challenges faced in designing a training path for PA staff to better engage them with public building stock renovation | The need expressed by the Municipality of Florence is to access training that is not limited to a general level of knowledge, for example, of monitoring the reporting of National or Community contributions, but which also addresses the technical/transversal characteristic administration of the development of the work (from planning to final reporting), combining practical cases as much as possible. In summary, although a course can increase the level of general knowledge in specific areas, the temporal and mental commitment of the staff is implemented in the practical execution of the activities, whether they are planning aimed at obtaining Community funding, or the financial reporting on a national portal, which would need to be illustrated step by step in the training courses by analyzing practical cases. For small municipalities it is necessary to choose the right topics for training courses that are relevant and appropriate to the objective and not merely generic. There is a strong need to invest in personnel, guaranteeing an indispensable generational turnover and increasing their number. The administrations that most of all need training are the smallest in terms of budgets, personnel, and administered population and they are the very large part of the over 8,000 Italian municipal administrations. Another challenge is the mobility of personnel between departments, etc. There is a risk of dedicating resources to the training of individuals who quickly move on to other positions. This issue should be thought of in terms of structured offices rather than as a matter for experts. It is essential to make all personnel aware of energy efficiency issues, through a communicative approach aimed at generating a new energy saving paradigm and declining it at every level. |
| COMPLEXITY of the 360° design, in close relation to the funding sources and the specific monitoring and reporting procedures that they require; necessary deepening of the KNOWLEDGE of the technical and financial tools necessary to carry out the renovation works of the public building heritage; development of specific, in-depth and practical TRAINING on the topics addressed |
Key conclusions reached, as well as recommendations for the training design The level of general knowledge of energy efficiency issues in public buildings is fair, if not good, in all the bodies involved. As we have seen, both the time and the trained personnel are lacking for a leap in quality which is absolutely essential at this stage. The dramatic increase in energy prices is affecting the budgets of local authorities, which are very interested in tackling this problem in the best possible way. Consequently, we believe that the level of preparation that we must offer must take into account: A good update on existing legislation A good update on the opportunities offered by European, national, and regional funding A good update on how to obtain private financing with the EPC and PPP formulas, concretely based on the best practices existing in the area and offered by the partnership of capable An offer of good practices that are easy to copy or draw inspiration from We must also provide training that is as tailor-made as possible, which takes into account the needs and availability of each organization that may be involved in the project. Therefore, lessons also in presence, profound but brief, which go to the point with a lot of concreteness. Everything we make available on the net must be illustrated in person, so that it doesn't remain only abstractly available. |
