Enel is underlining its commitment to promoting inclusion and valuing diversity by renewing its membership of the association Parks – Liberi e Uguali (Parks – Free and Equal).
Diversity is all around us, enriching and improving us. For the second year we are renewing our membership of Parks – Liberi e Uguali, the not-for-profit association that promotes the values of inclusion and non-discrimination and defends the rights of LGBT+ minorities.
In 2020 our partnership with Parks helped promote and spread the values of openness and respect for diversity and inclusion, which are an integral part of our company, pioneering a new awareness-raising pathway about LGBT+ matters that is becoming more and more consolidated each day.
The association, which was founded in 2010 by Ivan Scalfarotto, takes its name from Rosa Parks, the African-American civil rights activist whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in 1955 led to the abolition of all forms of racial segregation in the United States and made her a symbol of the civil rights movement.
Parks - Liberi e Uguali, which boasts a membership of more than 80 companies, is focused in particular on valuing diversity and eliminating forms of discrimination linked to sexual orientation and gender identity. On this front, the association offers its members awareness-raising and training pathways tailored to specific company contexts. The central message, however, is the same for everyone and is simple and stimulating: enhancing diversity and fostering inclusion are not only moral values, but also opportunities in terms of business sustainability. For example, they help improve the work environment, value talent and make the company more attractive to the outside world.
“Promoting inclusion and combating all forms of discrimination, including those linked to sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as enhancing diversity, are elements that are essential to our sustainability and Open Power strategy,” announced Filippo Nicolò Rodriguez, Head of Sustainability Italia. “The collaboration with Parks,” he continued, “is another important step toward recognizing and promoting the value of diversity, intended not only as respect for others but as a continuous process of enrichment and improvement.”
Parks supports its member companies in creating inclusive working environments, helping them implement internal regulations, boost awareness and develop an open culture on issues of diversity in general and those linked to sexual orientation and gender identity in particular.
“We are proud that Enel wants to continue its pathway of LGBT+ inclusion as part of our network of companies and institutions that, in addition to being the best employers for their staff, also represent important agents of social change,” explains Igor Suran, Executive Director of Parks. “We will work together so that this firm commitment, as well as the promotion of inclusion and diversity that has always been a part of Enel’s corporate culture, continues and is further strengthened for the benefit of everyone.”
In order to foster discussion, Parks has also created the Parks LGBT Diversity Index, which measures companies’ performance in relation to diversity and inclusion milestones: the progressive improvement of these results confirms the association’s effectiveness.
For a Group like ours, which for some time now has stood out for its focus on, and commitment to, these issues, joining Parks was a natural step. In 2015 we published our “Diversity and Inclusion” Policy and these values are part of the parameters we use to measure targets in our Sustainability Plan. Our formal commitment is organized into a series of practical actions that include: tutoring programs that enhance diversity, the organization of annual events like Diversity & Inclusion Days, initiatives to support parenting, gender equality, the adoption of innovative technologies to improve communications with people with disabilities and the creation of webinars for staff, such as the theatre production “Le Parole che escludono. Cosa c’è oltre lo specchio” (The words that exclude. What’s beyond the mirror) which explores, together with Igor Suran, the words that can make LGBT+ people feel excluded and examines what we can do to create a workplace that is even more inclusive for everyone.
“By the end of this year we aim to use inclusion to reduce the inequalities and barriers that still persist,” explains Raffaella Poggi d’Angelo, Head of People Care and Diversity Italia. “The collaboration with Parks is a further stimulus to continue on the pathway of sustainability and inclusion that had already begun with the initiatives and webinars on inclusive language dedicated to all employees at Country Italy.”
Respecting others is enriches us all and it never ends.