Superseded — the reference text is now D.M. 24/11/2025. A repealed text may still apply in transition: check the dates before using it.
It set the Minimum Environmental Criteria for awarding the design and works of new construction, renovation and maintenance of buildings, mandatory in public procurement. It has been repealed: the CAM in force are those of the Ministerial Decree of 24 November 2025, effective from 2 February 2026, which wholly replace the 2022 edition and absorb its corrective decree of 5 August 2024. This entry remains as a historical reference and for procedures concluded under the earlier regime.
It covered public procurement for the design, construction, renovation and maintenance of buildings. Since 2 February 2026 the reference is the CAM of the Ministerial Decree of 24 November 2025. The earlier regime remained applicable only to integrated contracts and to works based on designs validated under it, and only where the tender notice was published within three months of validation: a window now closed.
Minimum Environmental Criteria (CAM) are the environmental requirements that the public administration includes in its contracts to reduce the impact of works across their whole life cycle. For construction they are set by the Ministerial Decree of 23 June 2022, in force since 4 December 2022, which replaced the earlier Decree of 11 October 2017. They are not a recommendation: they are the operational tool of Green Public Procurement.
Their strength lies in being mandatory. The Public Contracts Code (Legislative Decree 36/2023, art. 57) requires their application in contracts regardless of value: anyone designing or building for a public client must comply with and document them, and a bid that ignores the basic criteria is excluded.
The decree distinguishes basic criteria, which are mandatory, from rewarding criteria, which award points to the best bid. The requirements are not only about materials: they cover the building as a whole, the individual building components and site management, and they run across every phase of the tender.
On materials the CAM act on several levers at once: recycled or recovered content for the various families (concrete, steel, brick, insulation, timber), limitation of hazardous substances, use of renewable materials and, above all, design for disassembly. A share by weight of building components and prefabricated elements, set by the decree, must be capable at end of life of selective demolition and of being recycled or reused.
| Lever | What it asks | How it is demonstrated |
|---|---|---|
| Recycled content | minimum shares of recycled or recovered material per material family | product certifications or manufacturer declarations |
| Design for disassembly | components designed for selective demolition and recycling at end of life | end-of-life design report |
| Hazardous substances | exclusion or limitation (e.g. CMR and REACH Candidate List substances) | technical and safety data sheets |
| Environmental performance | transparency of product impacts | EPD to UNI EN 15804 |
Where this rule shows up in past architect qualification exams — study the rule, not just the theme.
Yes. The Public Contracts Code (Legislative Decree 36/2023, art. 57) requires their inclusion in public contracts regardless of value. Basic criteria are binding and breaching them leads to exclusion; rewarding criteria award points.
Basic criteria are mandatory minimum requirements: a bid that does not meet them is excluded. Rewarding criteria are optional improvements: meeting them earns additional points in the ranking.
Not directly: they apply to public contracts. However many calls, incentives and sustainability protocols refer to them, and they remain a good-practice reference for private works too.
It means conceiving the building and its components so that, at end of life, they can be taken apart by selective demolition and the materials recovered or recycled, instead of becoming mixed waste.