The Italian legal system does not provide for a general obligation for new and refurbished buildings to obtain a sustainability certification. However, such a certification may be required in the context of public subsidies or incentives granted for renovation works or the like.

The most common (voluntary) sustainability certifications for buildings are listed and described below.

The Istituto per la Trasparenza, l’Aggiornamento e la Certificazione degli Appalti (“Protocollo ITACA”) represents the primary certification model in Italy. It covers the environmental sustainability level certification of different kinds of buildings (e.g., residential, office, commercial and industrial — for both new construction and restructuring) in many Italian regions. 

The Protocollo ITACA is a set of regional protocols and has technical-scientific requisites agreed at a national level. (Depending on its needs, each region has drafted a regional Protocollo ITACA, based on the national Protocollo ITACA.)

The Protocollo ITACA is managed by a specific committee (Comitato di Gestione) formed by the regional representatives. This regional type of management is very important for Italy, considering the great microclimatic differences between regions and the different traditional building construction technologies. 

Finally, the Protocollo ITACA evaluates the building’s environmental sustainability based on the following main criteria:

1. Quality of the site
2. Energy resources consumption (e.g., summer/winter energy consumption, hot water production, natural lighting, renewable energy and use of eco-compatible materials)
3. Impact of the “environmental loads” (e.g., the emission of the “greenhouse gas” solid and liquid waste and the permeability of the external areas)
4. Indoor quality
5. Service quality

Unlike the Protocollo ITACA, the CasaClima Nature is a certification model that evaluates a building not only in terms of its energy performance, but also with respect to its effects on the environment and on the health of the occupants. As of 2005, the CasaClima Nature certification is compulsory in the Trentino Alto Adige region for new buildings and buildings that have undergone significant renovation works, save for some specific exceptions (e.g., religious and rural buildings). The certification is also compulsory in the case of selling and leasing buildings.

The CasaClima Nature quality certification evaluates a building’s sustainability based on the following indicators:

• Overall energy efficiency of the building
• Environmental impact of the building materials used
• Hydraulic impact of the building
• Indoor air quality
• Protection from radon gas
• Natural lighting
• Acoustic comfort

The technical directive CasaClima Nature 1.6.2 replaced the previous CasaClima Nature 1.6 and applies to new buildings and buildings undergoing substantial modification as of 1 September 2017. This amended version of the directive introduced some changes to the requirements that have to be met to qualify for the certification. It likewise gave more detailed information regarding technical aspects.

Some of the changes relate to the following:

• Use of ProCasaClima2022 for all the calculations required for the certification (relevant to the building’s environmental and hydraulic impact score)
• In terms of calculating the environmental impact, the possibility to include the specific ecological values of a given material/product if the same is provided with an Environmental Product Declaration in compliance with the ISO 14025 and EN 15804 standards
• New guidelines relevant to banned products, materials and substances
• Minimum requirements for controlled mechanical ventilation aimed at fulfilling the requirements applicable to indoor air quality
• Inclusion of materials/products used as thermal and acoustic insulation for interiors in the scope of the control relevant to emissions of formaldehyde and total volatile organic compounds
• Revision of the limit values of volatile organic compounds for liquid indoor products
• Identification of the product’s certifications acceptable under the CasaClima Nature criteria for low-emissions product/materials
• Identification of the substances to be verified and analyzed when measuring the indoor air quality
• Identification of the methods for measuring the external and internal illuminance and of the methods for calculating the average daylight factor
• More specific identification of the acoustic tests to be performed for satisfying the requirements of acoustic comfort in multifamily residential buildings

The LEED 2009 Italia Nuove Costruzioni e Ristrutturazioni is a certification model relevant to new buildings for institutional (e.g., libraries, museums, churches, etc.), commercial (e.g., offices, stores) and residential (including hotels) use.

This evaluation model provides for the observance of certain mandatory prerequisites to achieve a certain score for the following:

• Sustainability of the site
• Water management
• Energy and environment
• Materials and resources
• Indoor environmental quality
• Project innovation
• Regional priority (which takes into account local characteristics in assessing a more appropriate project and building practices)