To ensure a sustainable future, precise objectives in terms of energy saving and reduction of impact on the environment must be established. The pathway to achieving them is via innovation and technology, considered essential for transforming cities and existing buildings into efficient and smart systems. With the adoption of smart city and smart building paradigms, the construction industry is leading the way towards a more sustainable, efficient and connected future. It is a transformation that is as much an enormous opportunity as it is a challenge, redefining the way in which we live and interact with the built environment.

The new smart buildings are designed to be energy efficient, optimising their own operation and ensuring safety and comfort for inhabitants. These buildings use cutting-edge technologies to monitor and manage energy consumption, reduce waste and improve the quality of life. Sensors, automation systems and intelligent networks are only a few of the innovations that make these improvements possible.

The new EPBD (Energy Performance of Building Directive - EU/2024/1275), also known as the Green Homes directive, aims to facilitate the improvement of building energy performance and provide guidance in terms of redevelopment and investments involved. Buildings are responsible for 40% of energy consumption in the European Union and 36% of the associated greenhouse gasses. Moreover, around 75% of European buildings are in fact energy inefficient.

One of the points touched upon in the directive is that of technology as the driving force of innovation in the construction industry and, consequently, of building smartness. This point is considered important because, to ensure efficiency and comfort, the building and the systems that comprise it must be able to adapt to the different needs required of them over time. They must, therefore, respond to the change of environmental conditions and the needs of the people who inhabit those spaces.

It is precisely this capability to adapt that determines the smartness of the building. Hence the need in Europe to find a uniform way to ‘measure’ a building’s capacity to accommodate smart services. This has resulted in the creation of the Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI), used for assessing the smart-readiness of a building as well as the level of energy savings it can attain and its overall performance.

The Smart Readiness Indicator is an indicator that, in a single parameter, can classify a building’s capacity for accommodating smartness. The main objective of the Smart Readiness Indicator is to encourage the transition towards smarter and more sustainable buildings, with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving energy efficiency. It is based on three key functionalities:

1. The capability of adapting the operation of the building to the needs of its occupants;

2. The capability of ensuring the energy efficiency and operation of the building by adjusting the energy consumption;

3. Flexibility in managing the overall energy consumption of the building and the capacity to integrate with the grid.

The Smart Readiness Indicator rates a building’s capacity to integrate with technologies for efficiency, connectivity and sustainability via the analysis of a catalogue of 54 smart services. These are subdivided into 9 main technical categories that represent the fundamental systems of a building: heating, domestic hot water, cooling, ventilation, lighting, the building’s dynamic envelope, electricity, electric vehicle charging, surveillance and control.

Once the services present in a building have been determined, the rating is evaluated based on 7 impact criteria: energy saving; energy flexibility; comfort; convenience; health and well-being; maintenance; and user information.

Smart Buildings must therefore also be equipped with a certain energy flexibility, creating a new electricity network that goes beyond one-way operation. Furthermore, this indicator aims to be easily understandable even for the final user, to encourage technologically advanced solutions from the grassroots.

The SRI provides a standardised assessment of a building’s smart capacity, helping owners, managers and tenants understand the building’s level of technological innovation and energy efficiency. It also encourages the adoption of smart technologies in the construction industry, contributing to the sustainability goals and carbon emission reductions of the European Union.

This tool not only provides an overall assessment of a building’s current capacity, but also an incentive for retrofitting work and adoption of cutting-edge technological solutions, such as the installation of smart sensors, configuration of energy management systems and the update of devices to achieve the highest levels of connectivity.

The SRI has finally become a strategic axis and brings with it considerable benefits: 

· It stimulates investment in smart and energy efficiency technologies;

· It supports technological innovation in the construction industry;

· It raises awareness about the benefits promised by smart technologies, such as building automation (from heating and ventilation to lighting and electric mobility).