Seven years ago, Enel began its transition to a sustainable business model with a decisive acceleration focused on decarbonization. In 2016, and line with this decision, the company broadened its approach to encompass all business lines, adopting, among other things, the Circular Economy model as a strategic accelerator within the Sustainability Strategy.

Subsequently, in line with Enel's organizational model, in 2019, we created the Circular Economy Chile area under Sustainability Management. In 2020, leaders were identified for each business line to create a community of experts to promote the culture of this new economic model.

Enel's Circular Economy strategy is based upon the following pillars:

Circular inputs: The incorporation of energy from renewable sources and the use of renewable raw materials, reuse or recycling in production processes, enabling the total or partial elimination of waste and pollution generation.

Product as a service: Business model by which companies maintain ownership over the product and sell its benefits under the form of a service. In order to take advantage of its benefits, they seek to maximize its utilization factor and to extend its life by means of good maintenance and treatment when done with its use.

New life cycles: The incorporation of new solutions such as reuse, upcycling, remanufacturing and recycling once the product has served its purpose or its life ends. Thus, maintaining the value of assets and materials over time when using them in new processes.

Product life extension: In order to extend the life of the product, a modular design[1] is incorporated, preventive or predictive maintenance, repair, reconditioning, improvement activities take place, and their resale in secondary markets is carried out.

Sharing platforms: Sharing of an underutilized asset among multiple users through information technology. For example, platforms enabling users to sell, exchange or share products owned by them, which maximizes their use.

After laying the foundations and defining a Circular Economy Strategy, we designed an action plan in 2021 consisting of four axes, which you can click on to learn more about:

  1. Cultural change management
  2. Linkage with the ecosystem
  3. Circularity metrics
  4. Value chain transformation

[1] Design that facilitates disassembly, reorganization, and reuse of components, allowing repair or replacement to be done by component rather than of the entire asset or product.