Enel is one of the top companies working to change the world. For the third time in four years, the prestigious American business magazine, Fortune, has included our Group on its Change the World List which ranks the companies that, through their business strategies, are changing the world and improving living conditions on both a social and environmental level.
The top 63 companies were selected on the basis of four factors: measurable social impact, business results, innovation and integration of the strategy within the company.
Once again our Group is the only Italian company to appear on the list, where it sits in 28th place. With regard to the reasons for selecting Enel, Fortune pointed out that the company is “one of the world’s top producers of energy from renewables—zero emission sources account for 51% of its production.”
The magazine also saluted the Open Power strategy and our approach to innovation combined with sustainability (innovability) which allows us to tackle business challenges by connecting all the company areas with startups, industrial partners, universities, research centres, SMEs and crowdsourcing platforms. Fortune writes that, through the company’s eight Innovation Hubs, “Enel has launched 147 energy projects with startups, 39 of which scaled to industrial deployment in the past three years.”
“Enel’s presence for the third time in Fortune’s Change the World List is a confirmation of the Group’s role as a driver of change and a leader in the global energy transition. In its listing, Fortune notes how our Open Power strategy serves as a platform to help address some of the biggest challenges that we face in the world today”
Francesco Starace, CEO and General Manager Enel
Creating long-term sustainable value is the ultimate aim of Enel’s 2018-2020 Strategic Plan. That commitment and the Group’s tangible results have also been recognised by the financial community, which is increasingly focused on environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria. ESG investor numbers are growing consistently, accounting for 8.6% of our share capital in December 2017, up from 8% in 2016, while long-term institutional investors hold 81.1% of the company’s share capital.
As part of our Strategic Plan, we formally committed to achieving four of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – numbers 4, 7, 8 and 13 – which we also believe is a business opportunity that offers long-term value to all the stakeholders. We have taken practical steps to implement the SDGs through local projects that are evaluated and logged on our Project Portfolio Management platform. From 2015 to 2017, Enel helped 1.7 million people in Latin America and Africa to access affordable clean energy (SDG 7), reached 600,000 people with educational projects (SDG 4) and involved a further 1.5 million in activities supporting socio-economic development (SDG 8).
Fortune compiles its Change the World List in partnership with the mission-driven consulting firm FSG and the Shared Value Initiative, a worldwide network of companies seeking business solutions to social challenges, and with Professor Michael E. Porter of Harvard Business School. Before compiling the final ranking, a team of journalists from the magazine also investigated the candidates using available reports and analyses. And yet again, Enel emerged as one of the companies changing the world.