Enel launches ‘circularity index’ in sustainability push

Enel’s ‘Economic CirculAbility’ measures its circularity by comparing its economic performance with its overall resource consumption.

Specifically the index, claimed a world first, takes into consideration the group’s overall earnings (EBITDA, i.e. before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) in euros and compares it with the amount of resources, including fuels and raw materials, consumed throughout the value chain by its various business activities expressed in tons.

And Enel has pledged to double its performance with regard to this KPI by 2030 as compared with 2020, which corresponds to a halving of the resource consumption in relation to generated EBITDA.

“We decided to measure our circularity and to double it by 2030, as we believe it is an integral part of our industrial and competitive strategy, and of our sustainability too,” said Ernesto Ciorra, chief innovability officer at Enel.

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He explains that this is an effort not to consume raw materials, but rather to use them and then make them available again for future production cycles and thereby gain greater freedom in terms of supplies and independence of geopolitical developments.

While raw materials are available today, global demand is increasing exponentially with efforts to decarbonise energy generation and industrial production in general.

“We are the first to commit to this and are proud to do so, since those at the forefront will gain a competitive advantage from circularity, while those who come last will risk dealing with increasingly scarce material availability.”

The new KPI index was announced at the World Economic Forum’s 2023 annual meeting in a panel on corporate circular target setting, an initiative of the Forum’s Platform for Accelerating Circular Economy (PACE).

Enel says in a statement that measuring circularity has been key to implementing its circular strategy since 2015, when the group began to realize that the circular economy could be a strategic driver.

Other initiatives designed to support the transition to a circular business model include a circular procurement with suppliers and Enel X’s circularity metrics for clients.