Stakeholder engagement

Updating the main ESG megatrends that have emerged has made it possible to align the list of ESG 2023 topics with the changed environment in which the Company operates.
The revision of the list of ESG topics, which takes place at intervals of no more than every two years, was carried out not only by taking into consideration the newly emerged ESG megatrends, but also by considering other factors, such as:

• the topics of greatest interest to sustainability rating agencies;
• sector benchmarking studies;
• sustainability reporting standards (including those def ined by EFRAG, e.g., ESRS 1, paragraph RA 16);
• the strategic guidance of the Company as well as input from experts inside and outside the organization.

As a result of the revision, the ESG 2023 topics have been grouped into four categories: environmental topics, social topics, governance topics and cross-cutting ESG topics, and divided into three levels (1st Level, 2nd Level, 3rd Level). In addition, the main changes basically concern the integration of new topics related to the environment and climate change. 

The stakeholders involved in the 2023 materiality analysis represent the individuals or interest groups that are affected or could be affected by the organization’s activities, and who are regularly involved through numerous listening initiatives in order to capture their expectations and identify potential and future impacts.
Consistently with the review conducted on the ESG topics tree, the stakeholder tree is also periodically reviewed so as to keep it in line with the context in which Enel operates.
During the 2023 analysis, also thanks to the support of the various business units responsible for relations with the various stakeholders with which the Company interacts, the updating of the list was completed without substantial changes.
The stakeholders are grouped into categories, classified on three levels, in line with the structure of the topics analyzed. The 1st Level stakeholder categories are the following⁽¹⁾:

• Business community;
• Customers; 
• Financial community;
• Institutions;
• Civil society and local and global communities;
• Media;
• Enel people;
• Suppliers and contractors.  

⁽¹⁾ Please refer to the table in section “Assignment of priority to the topics by external stakeholders”, which shows the stakeholder categories with their respective degree of relevance.

The process of assigning relevance to stakeholders, which aims to identify the main ones, involves the engagement of the business units responsible for stakeholder relations, which assess each category according to its relevance to their business, as required by the reference standards. In 2023, Company Management at Business Line and Country level was engaged in a specific questionnaire, in which they were asked to assess the relevance of the different categories above based on to the following parameters:

In particular, the analysis carried out at Group level did not reveal any significant changes from the previous year. The relevance of the stakeholders “Enel people” and “Customers”, as strategic players at the center of the sustainability strategy, is therefore confirmed.

Once the topics and stakeholder categories have been identified, weighted by their respective relevance value, stakeholders are involved in the process of assessing ESG topics on which they are asked to rate in terms of priority, satisfaction and the impact that Enel generates or can generate on the economy, the environment and people.
The analysis of the priority assigned by the stakeholders to the topics was carried out through the implementation of over 450 engagement initiatives (surveys, focus groups, interviews, document analysis, etc.) of internal and external stakeholders relevant to the Group, involving a total of 20 countries. Less than 1% of the assessments were carried out indirectly, through interviews with the business units responsible for the relationship with the reference stakeholder, demonstrating that the entire analysis process is intended to be as objective as possible. The engagement initiatives used in the materiality analysis are part of the various engagement initiatives carried out during the year by the Group’s various units. These initiatives include: customer satisfaction surveys; questionnaires from sustainability rating agencies; customer complaints; relations with analysts and investors, representative and trade associations; institutional relations at national and local levels, as well as with trade unions; media monitoring and opinion polls. In some cases, where necessary, ad hoc materiality analysis initiatives were implemented, including an online questionnaire for suppliers or focus groups aimed at specific categories of stakeholders.
In 2023, the main 1st Level priorities⁽²⁾ assigned by all internal and external stakeholders for the Group were:

• Climate change;
• Health and safety;
• Water resources management;
• Electrification of uses;
• Resilient grids.

These priorities support the process of identifying the Company’s impacts, risks and opportunities (for the connection of priority topics to material topics, see the impacts, risks and opportunities – IRO – table). The following table shows, for each internal and external stakeholder category identified at 1st Level, the respective degree of relevance, the type and engagement initiatives used, the priority topics and the Company’s response methods.

⁽²⁾ For more details on the topic Climate change see the chapter “Zero emissions ambition and just transition”; on the topic Health and safety see the chapter “Health and safety of people”; on the topic Water resources management see the chapter “Roadmap towards natural capital conservation”; on the topic Electrification of uses see the chapters “Customer centricity” and “Business drivers”; on the topic Resilient grids see the chapter “Business drivers”.