Business Fortune
TUGNOLO A. e C. srl originated within the Tugnolo family’s business network as a financial and real estate management tool. The family’s journey reflects the classic Northern Italian entrepreneurial spirit of the twentieth century. Annibale Tugnolo, the founder, began his career working with leading entrepreneurs in the Chieri area, first in construction and infrastructure and later in environmental services and facility management. In 1980, he took the leap into his own venture, gradually expanding both his workforce and resources. Over the years, this approach transformed the business into one of Turin area’s most important companies, providing environmental and facility services to local authorities and private enterprises.
With the anticipated growth in building and energy redevelopment driven by government incentives such as the Superbonuses, the company has embarked on a strategic transformation to position itself as a qualified player in this sector. TUGNOLO manages the entire supply chain in building redevelopment and plant engineering, covering design, services, construction, installations, certifications, production, sales, legal, and insurance. The group also operates its own Data Center and has developed innovative technological solutions, including Artificial Intelligence applications, to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.
Among its strategic holdings, Tugnolo Solutions srl was the first acquisition, revived from a dormant service company. It now serves as the group’s hub for documentation, reporting, and regulatory support, particularly in the context of Superbonus initiatives. Staffed by a team of trained young professionals, it has evolved into a verification centre for tax credit documentation and continues to assist clients with regulatory analysis, abstract preparation, and compliance workflows for post-incentive programs.
In this exclusive interview with Business Fortune, Riccardo Palmerini shares insights into TUGNOLO’s integrated real estate, engineering, and AI-driven renewable energy initiatives shaping modern property development.
Can you explain the company’s core business model and how these different services come together to create value for clients and partners?
NordEst Project srl was acquired as a strategic engineering asset. Bringing together architects, engineers, and safety professionals, it now serves as the technical hub of the group. Equipped with laser scanners, drones, and advanced BIM capabilities, NordEst Project enables precise surveying and seamless design integration across all TUGNOLO projects.
Urbanix, established with a 51% stake held by TUGNOLO, operates as the group’s on-site execution arm. It was created to consolidate control over construction activities, reduce reliance on external contractors, and ensure consistent quality in both building and plant engineering. Urbanix’s partners include an experienced building contractor and a plant engineering firm with a history of successful collaboration.
Wattover, an innovative startup launched in 2024, specializes in AI-driven design and predictive analysis for renewable energy systems. With 80% ownership retained by TUGNOLO, Wattover is developing a platform that automates sizing, financial modeling, and sustainability assessments for PV installations. Its roadmap aligns with the UN’s 2030 Agenda and broader ESG frameworks.
How is TUGNOLO addressing challenges in a rapidly evolving real estate sector, and how do your sustainability and energy efficiency initiatives contribute to modernizing the industry?
TUGNOLO has fully embraced all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals and has committed to operating in line with their criteria. Our market research and focus on innovation have enabled us to stay ahead in several strategic sectors. The organization and cohesion of our team allow us to operate with the efficiency and certifications of a large company while retaining the flexibility and responsiveness of a medium-sized firm. By adopting principles of “Lateral Thinking”, we position ourselves as a highly qualified player in our market segment.
TUGNOLO is, first and foremost, a company. It may sound obvious, but for us, it means that before being a player in our sector, we operate as a company in the truest sense. Our managers act independently, unbound by pre-established market rules. Within our Industrial Team, we have managers who have also served as consultants, alongside highly skilled technicians. By combining their experience with the creativity and resourcefulness of younger team members, we operate differently from our competitors, forging alliances even with companies that might traditionally be seen as rivals.
The company combines technical expertise with financial and managerial planning when approaching redevelopment projects. How does this integrated approach improve project outcomes and long-term asset value?
TUGNOLO operates across the entire supply chain with a blend of pragmatism and creativity. It combines distinctly Italian innovation and design sensibilities with a global perspective, observing and learning from trends around the world. Our design approach starts with concepts focused on the well-being of everyone involved, both the clients we serve and the teams we collaborate with.
Guided by the principles of the 2030 Agenda, we integrate these values into every aspect of our work, investing and engaging in atypical sectors in a cohesive, strategic way. The group’s structure allows TUGNOLO to maintain the agility of an SME while leveraging the depth and resilience of a large enterprise. This hybrid identity has become a strategic advantage in a sector increasingly shaped by regulatory complexity, technological change, and evolving financial models. By combining operational flexibility with institutional-grade governance, TUGNOLO is well positioned to respond quickly to evolving market demands.
How do TUGNOLO’s strategic investments in Made in Italy sectors complement your real estate activities, and what is your long-term vision for shaping Italy’s property and urban development?
TUGNOLO has a clear development plan, and it will take a little more time to see it fully realized. What we can share is that we are expanding our presence across the supply chain and developing new digital solutions. We have also established strategic, exclusive partnership agreements, all aimed at consolidating our positioning while staying true to the characteristics that have driven our success so far.
Wattover, one of Tugnolo’s subsidiaries, is an innovative start-up that has developed a strategic platform in the renewable energy sector. Through geolocation, we can produce complete executive projects, currently focused on the construction of photovoltaic systems, including large-scale installations. The solution analyzes weather and energy cost time series, integrating financial analysis and profitability directly into the project. This AI-based platform enables highly efficient performance in a booming market.
To strengthen this position, TUGNOLO has heavily invested in proprietary technology and digital infrastructure, developing a suite of tools designed to enhance efficiency, compliance, and the client experience across its operations. At the core of this is FIDIA (the Framework for Innovation and Design in AI) an expert system that automates the design and sizing of photovoltaic systems. Using deductive algorithms and a knowledge base trained on hundreds of real-world projects, FIDIA generates complete executive proposals, including technical documentation, performance forecasts, and regulatory compliance data.
About | Riccardo Palmerini
Riccardo Palmerini brings extensive experience, first in the fields of banking and financial IT and later in digital communication and marketing, while also serving as a lecturer at universities in France and Italy. Palmerini has long been involved in business development, design and innovation, European funds, and facilitated finance, topics on which he has led a program dedicated to SMEs on behalf of the European Parliament. He has also worked on addressing business crises, collaborating with institutional bodies at both national and regional levels, including OCS as a member of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Sustainable International Development Committee. An innovator and a strong supporter of the theories of lateral thinking; Palmerini is a former member of the Italian Forum for Sustainable Development.
