Until a decade ago, among officials and superintendents of the SBAP Bologna, reinforced plaster was considered the number one enemy of structural consolidation in listed buildings. In the course of these years, and also in the wake of the extensive and intense activity connected to the reconstruction after the 2012 earthquake in Emilia Romagna, changes in perspective have taken place. Above all, two interconnected conditions have become clear, which are connected to the theme of technological innovation in the cultural heritage and its translation from experimental activity to operational practice. In the first instance, scientific research perfects and improves materials, introducing characteristics and performances that are better and better adapted to different reference situations, including pre-industrial construction materials and techniques. As a consequence, what initially is an innovative solution becomes a practice, more and more compatible with the historical matter, and the judgement of the protection body changes, and re-evaluates the possibilities, always different, that technology proposes, in order to find the best performing solution possible, in terms of preservation of testimonial values. In this contribution, we intend to present three examples of this process, which took place over a very short period of time, but which has radically changed the metrics of conservation service assessment.