Enel is committed to contribute to four of the 17 United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) within the UN Global Compact Italy, a network of companies
The United Nations Agenda 2030, signed in September 2015 by the governments of 193 countries, outlined a long-term global vision to combat poverty, hunger and disease. In this process, the private sector is called upon to play a key role at the table of Paris COP21 - the UN Climate Change Conference – which for the first time was also attended by a group of companies, key players in the decarbonisation process within an economic system free market. These include Enel, which since 2004 is a member of the Global Compact, the UN organisation formed by the world's top fifty companies that apply ethical principles regarding the protection of human rights, rights of workers and environmental protection, and the fight against corruption.
Global Compact Network Italy (GCNI) is committed to encourage adhesions and promote the adoption of sustainability practices in Italian companies and organisations. The GCNI set the guidelines of the first two meetings between Italian companies - Business & SDGs High-Level Meeting, which recently took place in Rome and Venice - to build a "qualitative critical mass" to act as a point of reference for a new corporate culture at national and European level.
For Enel, which hosted the meeting in Rome at Villa Lazzaroni, environmental, social and economic sustainability is a pillar of the present and the future of energy. The power company is committed to contributing directly to the achievement of four of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) defined by the United Nations. The medium-term objectives (to be achieved by 2020) include guaranteeing access to electricity to 3 million people who now lack it, and educational projects that will involve about 400 thousand people and will give its contribution to employment and economic growth of other 500 thousand individuals. By 2050 Enel aims to attain carbon neutrality, by totally eliminating CO2 emissions in all its productive activities.
Each activity of the company is part of a shared value creation model (CSV - Creating Shared Value): from business development to the engineering phase and construction of a plant, until its daily management. Enel has developed a CSV model with projects and activities in line with the SDGs. At the end of 2015, socially responsible (SRI) funds owned 7.7 percent of the share capital of the Enel Group (an increase compared to December 2014, when it was 5.9 percent), 10.3 percent of the float (8.6 percent at the end of 2014). These data demonstrate the importance of sustainability and CSV as tools to attract investors and create value for the Group.
