Since January 1, 2021, in Italy it has become mandatory to design public and private buildings as nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB), and since May 28, 2024, the European Green Homes Directive has come into force.

This implies not only greater attention from technicians during the design phase, but above all greater focus on maintaining design performance over time. This is also related to the growing European focus on environmental issues, which in the coming years will lead to increasing minimum levels of energy efficiency and decarbonization to be achieved.

In our thirty years of experience in the building systems sector, we have found that after project development, construction supervision during the works, and final commissioning, we are increasingly asked to identify the causes of the frequent downgrading in the management of systems. This scenario results in a loss of efficiency compared to the expected performance, with a consequent increase in energy consumption and operating costs.

This situation frequently occurs in the real estate sector, both in newly built assets and in the regeneration of existing buildings. Attention to quality, which until now has mainly focused on design, construction, and commissioning up to the building handover phase, must now extend to the entire life cycle of the building–systems complex, also in relation to the most recent regulatory orientations (EU taxonomy, decarbonization), and above all with the objective of ensuring greater control and containment of operating costs.

According to consolidated statistical data, about 75% of the total cost of a civil building is related to its life cycle, while construction costs account for only 25%. To address the issues described, with the aim of ensuring proper management and maintaining the efficiency of the building–systems complex after commissioning, we propose introducing Continuous Commissioning activities.