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Aerial photo of a highway system lit up at night, with focus on a circular exit ramp representing Enel North America’s circular economy strategy.
Building an inclusive circular economy
From repurposing wind farm materials to changing the way we design our products and services for cities, the circular economy model is key to Enel's business strategy. Applying circular principles can make the world go round sustainably.
Circularity guides everything we do
At Enel, we define circularity as decoupling economic activity from resource consumption. It moves us away from the linear economy approach of taking, making, using and wasting. For nearly two decades, we've put the principles of circular economy at the heart of our business to create a sustainable economic model for decarbonization.
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The five pillars of the circular economy
It is possible to reduce environmental impact and promote true sustainable development by going circular. A circular mindset is required throughout the entire value chain to achieve global decarbonization goals, and building circular cities takes intention and cooperation.
Circular inputs
The use of renewable energy sources and materials that have recycled content are biodegradable, recyclable or renewable.
Product-as-a-service
Through Product-as-a-Service (PaaS) models, the customer uses a product or good, but the producer maintains ownership, incentivizing producers to design for longer life cycles, optimize utilization and ensure proper materials and asset management.
Sharing
Platforms that enable the sharing of materials and goods increase their utilization without the need to produce more of them.
Life extension
Products are designed to be modular and adaptable, simplifying their maintenance, modification and regeneration.
New lifecycles
The value of a product is preserved at the end of its lifecycle through processes that reuse, regenerate, upcycle or recycle the product, its components or raw materials.
Our latest circularity stories
Circularity is top of mind in our everyday business operations and our work with partners. To deliver long-term environmental and economic impact, we must consider the sustainability and impact of an entire value chain.
Embracing circularity across our value chain
Transitioning to clean energy is necessary, but not enough by itself. We must also find new ways of creating value that are self-sustaining and circular. At Enel, we are pursuing further improvements in the field of circularity – not only in our projects and products from development stage to their end-of-life, but also in all of our operations and new life cycles, collaborating with our employees, customers, communities and suppliers.
Developing sustainable energy with circular principles
To go from just renewable energy to truly sustainable energy, circularity is fundamental. Enel implements circular principles at every stage of our renewable projects. We work together with our partners to follow our “Sustainable Construction Site” model so that the design, construction, supply, operations and end-of-life management phases protect the environment, respect biodiversity and create long-term shared value for the communities who host our projects.
Building smart, circular cities
The unstoppable growth of people living in urban areas forces us to rethink cities and revise their linear economic approach. As the transformation enabler for smarter and more sustainable living, Enel is helping businesses and cities to integrate circular principles that build circular cities. Our circular city vision is an intelligent electricity grid powered by renewable energy, with smart EV charging points, distributed energy resources and storage systems that together create an inclusive and resilient economy.
Ensuring circularity in our supply chain
At Enel, we firmly believe in measuring the impact of our own business and actively involving our suppliers in a circular procurement strategy. To take a value chain approach, Enel’s Global Procurement function is establishing a circularity criterion upfront with our procurement process that allows us to provide a commercial offset or reward for suppliers that can meet that criterion, as well as guide them through circularity references and set improvement actions.
Deep dive into our circular projects and vision
Reporting and Resources
Enel’s circular economy evolution
2015: Implementing circular business strategies
As decarbonization and circularity conversations converged, Enel updated its business model to apply circular economy principles to its activities across the value chain.
2020: First circularity improvement KPI
After five years of commitment to circular economy principles, Enel launched its first key performance indicator to measure success. The Circularity Improvement KPI compares the consumption of fuel and raw materials throughout the life of our power plants to the energy generated.
2023: Setting the global standard for measuring circularity
To expand our view from individual power plants and set a target for circular success that considers all business activities, Enel developed its Economic CirculAbility© KPI. The metric compares overall earnings with the amount of resources consumed.
During the World Economic Forum, Enel partnered with the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE) and other circular economy advocates to announce the new KPI for Corporate Circular Target-Setting.
2030: Doubling circularity in a decade
Accurately measuring circularity is critical to implementing an effective circular strategy throughout our value chain.
Globally, Enel Group has pledged to double its Economic CirculAbility© metric across the business by 2030, compared to 2020 levels. We have also committed to reducing resource consumption and improving circularity in our power plants by 92% by 2030 compared to 2015.
Enel’s circular economy evolution
As decarbonization and circularity conversations converged, Enel updated its business model to apply circular economy principles to its activities across the value chain.
After five years of commitment to circular economy principles, Enel launched its first key performance indicator to measure success. The Circularity Improvement KPI compares the consumption of fuel and raw materials throughout the life of our power plants to the energy generated.
To expand our view from individual power plants and set a target for circular success that considers all business activities, Enel developed its Economic CirculAbility© KPI. The metric compares overall earnings with the amount of resources consumed.
During the World Economic Forum, Enel partnered with the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE) and other circular economy advocates to announce the new KPI for Corporate Circular Target-Setting.
Accurately measuring circularity is critical to implementing an effective circular strategy throughout our value chain.
Globally, Enel Group has pledged to double its Economic CirculAbility© metric across the business by 2030, compared to 2020 levels. We have also committed to reducing resource consumption and improving circularity in our power plants by 92% by 2030 compared to 2015.