2020 has placed sustainable development at the top of international agendas even more decisively than before. At the same time, it is accelerating the need to share a common purpose that brings together the economy, society, and environment in a single perspective.
The pandemic, social demands, and impacts of climate change have made it painfully clear how important it is to place economic growth on the same path as human and social development, in harmony with the environment.
Enel Chile has been integrating the triad of economy, society, and environment into its strategic plan for several years, anticipating trends that have today become a must for sustainable growth. The Company’s strategic planning is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. Through its business lines, it contributes directly to the generation of clean and affordable energy, an important vector to promote the decarbonization of consumption; to innovation in the industry, through its products and services; and finally to the sustainability of our cities and communities. In short, a sustainable business model that in and of itself is an integral action for the climate, society, and financial sustainability of the business.
Our positioning as the first renewable operator in Chile is the result of our decade-long investment in the energy transition. Today, this allows us to mark emblematic milestones, such as closing our coal-fired power plants by 2022, foreseeing our commitment to decarbonization by 18 years. We strengthened our roadmap with an investment plan that aims for 77% of our generation mix to be from renewable sources by 2023, thus reducing our direct emissions by 64% compared to 2017. Our business strategy also contributes to the country’s commitments to the Paris Agreement in terms of emissions reduction. By 2023, approximately 90% of our generated energy will be free of direct emissions.
Regarding renewable energy development, we are looking to the near future by also exploring new models, such as green hydrogen production and tidal energy, both of which are being pursued with two pilot projects.
The energy transition reaches our cities by decontaminating energy consumption. Electric mobility continues to be a priority for fossil fuel-free transportation and a sustainable city. Enel X was a pioneer in bringing electric buses to Chile through a public-private partnership, a model that now boasts 435 buses in the city of Santiago and a Pan-American corridor that will run throughout Chile and, together with other countries, will extend to Mexico. As of 2020, Enel X has installed 766 charging points around the country. The challenge of rethinking our energy consumption requires developing solutions in partnership with other actors. This is a central strategy of Enel X, which, through a participatory model coordinated by Sofofa, has replaced more than 8,600 wood stoves with electric heaters, contributing significantly to indoor decontamination by removing 179 tons of fine particulate matter.
While all of us at the Company have had to face significant business continuity challenges in 2020, the most pressing responsibility was to ensure the continuity of electricity supply. Technological innovation and digitalization have proven key to the resilience of our distribution network, which is why we will invest even more in strengthening our infrastructure and grids to offer our customers a service that meets their current and future consumption needs.
We are a team of over 2,000 people dedicated to providing solutions and answers to the country’s greatest challenges, prioritizing diversity and inclusion as the core values for our Company’s sustainable growth. In 2020, health and safety have been a key focus for protecting ourselves during remote or on-site work. At Enel Chile, we have paid close attention to personal and family protection initiatives during the pandemic, as well as to all measures and protocols for preventing infection. Our investment in digitalization over the past years has allowed more than 70% of us to work from our homes and continue interacting with all stakeholders, maintaining continuous dialogue and engagement.
Our social investment strategy, which in Chile prioritizes local economic development and access to energy and quality education, has allowed our communities to become more resilient over this year of health crisis. Similarly, we have collaborated with our campaign “codo a codo” to meet the different needs throughout the country, with health infrastructure to strengthen protection against infection and the capacity of medical services.
Our business’s contribution to the country’s sustainable growth in environmental, social, and governance dimensions is a commitment that has positioned us in the main sustainability indices, becoming the first electricity sector company in the in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index Emerging Markets, MILA, and Chile, of S&P Global, and also recognized for its ever-better risk management and ESG performance in indices such as MSCI, Sustainalytics, FTSE.
In 2020, Enel Chile was distinguished by ISS ESG Corporate Rating as a PRIME company for its performance in sustainability, a category achieved among 125 companies from the electricity sector worldwide.
We will continue to work vigorously and with conviction, based on our corporate values of trust, responsibility, proactivity, and innovation. These are the principles that plot our path forward. We are certain they will continue to yield new opportunities and challenges, for which we will continue building strong networks and ties with our stakeholders through collaboration, where creating shared value will continue to define our shared future.