The Smart Readiness Indicator is moving from technical development and national testing towards practical implementation. This guest blog post is from Alessandro Lodigiani, Country Manager Italy at R2M Solution, an Italian company with a presence in France and Spain, working to connect research and innovation with their practical application in the built environment. At FIN Connect 2026, Alessandro presented the SRI methodology, sharing early results from the Italian testing phase, and its growing relevance for building performance, digitalization and BACS.
Over the past years, the Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) has evolved through technical studies, stakeholder consultations and national testing phases across Europe. At FIN Connect 2026 in Verona, Alessandro Lodigiani brought these developments together with some of the activities already taking place in Italy, from the national SRI testing phase to AI-based HVAC optimisation, the D-SMART digital hub and the connection between SRI and Building Automation and Control Systems (BACS).
At its core, the SRI evaluates how building services contribute to three main capabilities: optimising energy efficiency and overall in-use performance, adapting to the needs of occupants, and adapting to signals from the energy grid through energy flexibility. To do this, the methodology looks across nine technical domains: heating, cooling, domestic hot water, ventilation, lighting, dynamic building envelope, electricity, electric vehicle charging, and monitoring and control. It assesses their contribution through seven impact criteria covering energy efficiency, maintenance and fault prediction, comfort, convenience, health and well-being, information to occupants, and energy flexibility and storage.
The assessment combines an overall SRI score with a more detailed view across technical domains, impact criteria and the three main capabilities. Different assessment methods are available depending on the required depth: Method A provides a simplified checklist of 27 smart-ready services and takes approximately one hour; Method B uses the full catalogue of 54 services and requires an expert assessment lasting approximately half a day to one day; Method C is based on actual in-use smart building performance using measured or metered data.
The development of the methodology has progressed alongside the European regulatory framework. The timeline presented at FIN Connect starts with the 2018 revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and the first technical study on SRI, followed by stakeholder consultations and a second technical support study in 2019–2020. The SRI platform was subsequently established, while several European countries — including Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Finland and France — moved into official national testing phases. The revised EPBD entered into force in 2024, followed by further technical support and implementation activities.
Italy joined this process in February 2025, when the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security launched the official national SRI testing phase and entrusted it to ENEA – Department of Energy Efficiency for a period of 12 months. The programme combined the completion of SRI assessments with the collection of technical contributions and comments, and the report for the European Commission is currently being completed.
The regulatory picture presented by Lodigiani also includes developments concerning larger non-residential buildings. From June 2026, the new Italian Decreto Requisiti Minimi requires non-residential buildings with heating and cooling systems above 290 kW to have BACS Class B or higher according to UNI EN ISO 52120-1, while the presentation indicates SRI assessment from 2027 for buildings above the same threshold.
What is emerging from the Italian testing phase?
More than 60 SRI assessments were carried out during the Italian testing phase using Method B, allowing the results to be compared with those collected in other Member States. The assessments covered different Italian climatic zones and building uses, with offices and educational buildings particularly represented; 71% of the sample was non-residential and 29% residential, while 56% of the buildings were classified as advanced and 44% as standard. Particular attention was also given to non-residential buildings with HVAC rated output above 290 kW.
The first results show higher average scores for non-residential than for residential buildings. Grid-related functionality emerges as the weakest of the three main SRI capabilities and is a key factor limiting overall scores. The same pattern can also be seen in data collected in other Member States.
Alongside the broader picture emerging from the national testing phase, applying SRI to a real building before and after the introduction of AI-based HVAC optimisation shows more concretely what the indicator can capture.
The example presented at FIN Connect is Campus Forgiatura in Milan, a complex where R2M Solution has contributed to a broader pathway focused on decarbonisation, green certification and the digitalisation of building performance. The campus comprises ten buildings used for offices, a bar and a restaurant, with a total built area of 20,813 m² on a 17,000 m² site. As part of this wider pathway, the work has included AI-based HVAC optimisation and the development of an ESG Digital Twin Ecosystem combining AI, IoT technologies and real building data.
Between February 2022 and August 2024, the components controlled by the cloud-based AI system achieved 26.1% normalised electricity savings compared with 2021, the pre-AI baseline. This corresponds to 183,300 kWh of electricity saved and €45,549 in energy cost savings, based on an average energy price of €0.248/kWh. Additional savings were obtained through reduced thermal energy demand for heating and cooling from the central polyvalent heat pumps, although these are not included in the figures above. In March 2023 alone, electricity savings on the components controlled by the system reached 37%, and the results from the application of these smart-ready technologies were subsequently published in the REHVA European HVAC Journal in October 2024.
The case is particularly relevant to SRI because one of the office buildings was assessed before and after the AI-based HVAC optimisation, making it possible to look at the changes not only in terms of energy savings, but also through the three dimensions evaluated by the indicator. The overall SRI score increased from 25.3%, Class F, to 39.3%, Class E. Energy efficiency and overall in-use performance increased from 34.95% to 53.30%, responsiveness to occupants’ needs from 30% to 42.92%, and grid-related functionality from 11.22% to 21.77%.
The Campus Forgiatura case therefore connects measured energy performance with smart readiness in the same building, providing a before-and-after view of the effects associated with AI-based HVAC optimisation. It also shows how SRI can help translate the impact of digital technologies into a broader building-performance perspective. This relationship is being explored at a larger scale through D-SMART.
D-SMART – Digitalisation for Smart Monitoring, Assessment, Readiness and Technology is developing a digital SRI hub for the Lombardy Region. The project brings together several activities designed to support SRI adoption through digital methods and services. R2M Solution coordinates the project, contributing to SRI assessments and data management as well as to the development of the Digital One-Stop Shop.
More than 350 new SRI assessments are planned, involving pilot buildings such as shopping centres, offices and multifunctional buildings, with the resulting information feeding into a dedicated SRI database. The project also focuses on the integration of SRI with other digital building systems through the development of ontologies and APIs for BMS, BIM, AI and tools for SRI calculation and analysis.
At the same time, D-SMART will explore an SRI method for groups of buildings through the concept of a “smart ready community”, strategies towards a dynamic SRI and Method C, and the relationship between SRI and sustainability certification protocols including LEED, WELL and BREEAM.
Another part of the discussion at FIN Connect concerned the relationship between BACS and the Smart Readiness Indicator, with an approach that combines a BACS Due Diligence Report, an economic analysis and an SRI pre-assessment. The BACS due diligence analyses the existing systems, assesses compliance with regulatory requirements and identifies the automation class achieved, while the economic analysis considers the interventions required to reach compliance together with their simple payback and economic sustainability.
The SRI pre-assessment complements this work by identifying gaps in relation to future SRI requirements and opportunities to improve smart readiness. Together, these activities support three strategic objectives: reducing regulatory risk, planning investments and enhancing asset performance and value. The approach combines information on existing automation systems, required interventions and their economic implications with an assessment of the building’s smart readiness.
The activities presented at FIN Connect show how SRI is moving from methodology to application at different scales: from national testing and individual buildings to digital platforms and the combined assessment of smart readiness and building automation. At the same time, D-SMART is already exploring the next steps, including a dynamic SRI, Method C, integration with digital building systems and an SRI approach for groups of buildings.
Across these applications, the same three dimensions remain at the core of the Smart Readiness Indicator: energy efficiency and in-use performance, responsiveness to occupants’ needs and interaction with the energy grid. The real opportunity is to use SRI not simply as a compliance indicator, but as a practical framework for understanding where a building stands today and where technology can create measurable value.
“For me, the value of SRI is that it gives us a common framework to understand how technology is actually improving a building: in terms of performance, the experience of people and its interaction with the energy system. The next step is to use this information to support better investment and operational decisions.” Alessandro Lodigiani, Country Manager Italy at R2M Solution.