Integrated tools for quality promotion and project control

Public administrations, called upon to integrate the principles and criteria of Do No Significant Harm (DNSH) and Environmental Social, Governance (ESG) in the planning, design and production of their investments, now find themselves operating within new decision-making scenerios and models, in the very broad framework of standards, including specialised ones, certification protocols and framework levels for sustainability assessment and reporting. This paper reports on a research experience aimed at defining tools and guidelines to incentivise and assess the environmental and social quality of projects and works (a collaboration between Agenzia del Demanio and Politecnico di Milano). It documents the challenges, limits and opportunities arising from overlapping compulsory regulations, standards and voluntary certification protocols for the qualification of public works.