In 1962 Enel’s suppliers were proud to be contributing to the reconstruction of Italy in the aftermath of the Second World War. Today, in 2020, they are joining with our Group to commit to another mission: to drive the energy transition towards a sustainable future worldwide. Salvatore Bernabei, who was our Group’s Director of Global Procurement from May 2017 to September 2020, reminded us of this on the occasion of Procurement Italia Supplier Day.
The event, which was held at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome on 11 February, was promoted by Alda Paola Baldi, Head of Procurement Italy, to bring together representatives of large and small companies that work together with us. It was an important opportunity to listen to their experiences and share best practices because, as was underlined during proceedings, no statistic can ever take the place of human relationships.
One of the speakers, Minister of Economic Development Gian Paolo Manzella, pointed out that Enel is not only leading the way in renewable energies, energy efficiency and digitalisation, it is also playing a key role in driving the rest of the Italian industrial world towards a more sustainable model, beginning with its own suppliers.
Carlo Tamburi, Head of Enel Italy, went on to explain that these partnerships offer mutual benefits as they also enable us to grow and improve. The pathway is based on the Open Power vision, which consists of being open to new innovative ideas wherever they may come from, also through our Open Innovability® platform.
Indeed, in our vision, not only do we strive to achieve sustainability in our business strategy, we also share our values with everyone in the supply chain. These values include social and environmental sustainability: respect for people, the importance of dialogue with local communities, inclusion and safeguarding diversity. Summing up, Ernesto Ciorra, Head of Innovability®, pointed out that we can’t be sustainable without our suppliers.
For this reason, the criteria that we use to select our suppliers also include crucial factors such as attention to safety and the environment, fairness, respect for human rights, the circular economy and Innovability®, the term we coined in order to express the combination of Innovation and Sustainability.
By extending our model of sustainability and innovation to include our suppliers, many Italian companies have been able to raise their standards, acquiring experience and skills that make them more competitive in Italy and abroad.
The role of the supplier is central to two ambitious initiatives, both of which are designed to create shared value: the Supplier Development Program to support the sustainable growth of businesses and the Supplier Journey to improve their experience. With our Group’s progressive shift towards digitalisation and platformisation, our suppliers can use new tools: the platform Webuy, which brings together all procurement processes in a single area, Supplier Performance Management, which standardises performance evaluations, the Glassdoor system dedicated to information about single suppliers and the upgraded Procurement portal.