The Energy & Condominiums Desk has accompanied families, condominiums and professionals in the province of Parma on the path towards energy efficiency. Here’s how it went.
The EASIER project has come to an end. After more than three years of activity — from November 2022 to the beginning of 2026 — a path that involved seven partners, hundreds of families and dozens of professionals and businesses in the Parma area comes to an end. The final report, which has just been published, details what was built, what worked and what we took home as an experience.
Where we started from
EASIER was born from a simple question: why are so few families and condominiums really able to energetically redevelop their home, even when they want to do so and incentives exist?
The answer, which emerged from the first discussions with citizens, condominium administrators and professionals in the sector, is that the problem is not the lack of information. It is the complexity of the path: too many different figures to coordinate, too many unclear steps, too much uncertainty about costs, incentives and quality of operators. And, above all, little trust.
The Energy & Condominiums Desk was created to respond to all this: a single, free and neutral point of reference — i.e. without commercial interests — to which families and condominiums could turn for orientation, receive technical and financial support, and find qualified professionals.
What we did
The Helpdesk portal was opened in July 2024. In just a few months, it has made available eight separate services, a training platform and a public register of companies and professionals who have joined the Condominium Pact for the Climate.
The services cover the entire process from the first application to the choice of interventions:
- Helpdesk: answers questions on redevelopment, incentives and renewable sources
- Thermal Camera Analysis: Detects Heat Loss in the Building
- Pre-feasibility for the heat pump: check whether and how the boiler can be replaced
- Financial support: helps you understand how to set up an economic plan for the works
- Energy Communities: information on how to participate in a CER or a collective self-consumption group
- Support for condominiums: accompanies the administrator and the condominiums in collective decisions
- Training: online and face-to-face courses for citizens, professionals and businesses
- Condominium Climate Pact: a searchable list of qualified operators, with verifiable information on each one
What we learned
The final report does not limit itself to collecting the numbers. Dedicate ample space to what did not work as planned and what we would do differently.
Trust is built with time, not with campaigns. The tool that attracted the most visitors to the portal was not the Helpdesk or technical services, but the page for joining the Condominium Pact — i.e. the section where citizens can check who are the companies and professionals they could work with. People want to know who they’re talking to before they even know what to do.
Digital is not enough on its own. The most requested services — thermal imaging camera analysis and heat pump pre-feasibility — both involve a physical inspection. Those who decided to take the next step did so after direct contact, not just after browsing the site.
Condominiums remain the most difficult knot. Making a decision shared by multiple owners is slow and complicated. It is the point where the path most often stops, and where there is still a lot of work to be done — not only in terms of information, but of real facilitation.
Why this work doesn’t stop here
In March 2026, shortly after the conclusion of EASIER, the European Commission published Recommendation (EU) 2026/536, with which it indicates to Member States how to build one-stop shops for the energy renovation of buildings. The description of what an effective help desk should do — integrate multiple services, combine online and physical presence, be neutral with respect to the market, follow the citizen step by step — is what the Energy & Condominiums Desk has done in these three years.
Italy will have to implement the Green Homes Directive by May 2026, and with it the obligation to activate one-stop shops throughout the territory. The experience of EASIER — its tools, its method, its lessons learned — could now be a concrete starting point for those who will have to build these structures.