Sustainability and energy flow together along Enel’s more than 1.8 million kilometres of power lines around the world. The companies included in the perimeter of the Group’s Infrastructure & Networks Business Line have earned an ISO 14001 environmental certification in all the countries in which the Line operates, including Italy, Spain, Romania, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Brazil and Colombia.
This recognition confirms our Group’s commitment to environmental protection and biodiversity, in line with our Open Power strategy that aims to address some of the biggest challenges in the world. Among these challenges is the distribution of energy in various areas, cities and homes, in a sustainable manner that respects ecosystems and communities.
“Our efforts to obtain and implement ISO 14001 certification are a clear confirmation of the importance that the Group gives to environmental issues,” explained Valerio Vallerani from Enel’s Global Infrastructure and Networks, Quality System and Processes Division. “The application of these standards involves the search for continuous improvements that aim to increasingly improve our environmental performance. In addition to pursuing a continuous improvement in our daily activities, we design and implement a series of initiatives that – Vallerani explained – span the entire spectrum of our activities, from the networks’ actual components, the development of criteria and plant operation, energy efficiency and bird conservation to the testing of substances with a reduced environmental impact, up to e-mobility.”
Among the most important current initiatives are improvements on the network, leading to a positive impact on energy efficiency, combined with the networks’ optimisation and development, as well as with specific actions aimed at the reduction of losses, such as the implementation of low loss transformers.
We are also promoting an increase in electric vehicles within our fleet in all the Countries in which we are present, thus reducing CO2 emissions and allowing our engineers to travel in different areas in an increasingly sustainable and efficient manner.
In order to increase the safeguarding of the surrounding areas, we are also carrying out a pilot project that involves the use of biodegradable vegetable oils in our transformers, rather than mineral oils.
Moreover, we support several projects to protect biodiversity, with initiatives to reintroduce, protect and track bird species.
These initiatives significantly reduce the risk of bird collision with power cables and electrocution, through the installation of wire-markers and by isolating the active areas of the electricity pylons to reduce electrocution.
The preservation of these species is also pursued through the installation of nests on the power grid pylons and by monitoring bird movement via GPS.
In the Countries in which it operates, Global Infrastructure & Networks are launching activities to raise the environmental awareness of contractors who work with the networks.
The Group also implements environmental initiatives aimed at improving the management and recovery of special waste produced by construction activities, as well as the maintenance of the power grid (copper and aluminum electrical conductors and cables, transformers, lead acid batteries, etc.), the reuse of discarded components, elimination/decontamination campaigns for substances that can have an impact on the environment (mercury vapour lamps, polychlorinated biphenyls, etc.).
“Our objective for the future – Vallerani concludes – is to continue along a path of continuous improvement, including the application of global Best Practices that will be identified in all our activities, working to create Integrated Management Systems in all the countries in which we are present.”
For the Enel Group, the creation of value integrates environmental protection in all aspects of its business –a strategy that is accomplished through the involvement of all stakeholders, starting from local communities. We ask them to share their ideas and to notify us about critical issues by sending an email to emsinternet@enel.com, an account that is directly managed by the Group’s Environmental Management Representative, Giulio Peruzzi.