Circular economy

As part of Enel’s energy transition process, an integrated approach was adopted from the outset, which allows for a reduction in the consumption both of fossil fuels thanks to power generation from renewable sources, and of raw materials used in the construction of new assets thanks to the principles of the circular economy.
In particular, a circular model enables an accelerated transition and ensures competitiveness, resilience, and sustainability in several areas:

• environmental, by reducing environmental impacts tied to the procurement of virgin raw materials;
• social, by fostering the creation of local value chains;
• economic, by creating new revenues and reducing procurement risks and uncertainties tied to supply chains and external shocks.

The Group’s vision of the circular economy is inspired by the main international standards and is structured through all the different phases of a product’s life, based on five pillars: circular inputs (inputs from renewables, recycling, reuse); life extension (through modularity, facilitated reparability, and predictive maintenance); product as a service (the Company provides the customer with a service and remains the owner of the product, maximizing its use factor and useful life); sharing platforms (shared use of an asset among multiple users); and new life cycles (recovery of value of assets and materials, e.g., through reuse and recycling).

A key element to fully redesign the value chain with a circular approach is the collaboration with suppliers, customers, institutions, associations, other actors in the supply chain and other sectors more generally, since waste material from one production chain may serve as a resource for another. It is vital to extend this collaboration to the innovation ecosystem too (see the chapter on “Innovation”), so that the entire model can be redesigned by leveraging new solutions, not only from a technological standpoint, but also from a business model, regulatory and collaborative perspective.