Enel SpA services

The reporting system allows to identify, monitor and disclose each year the interactions of Enel’s industrial operations with the environment. The reporting process, and the resulting Environmental Report, is part of Enel’s environmental management system. Its method ensures homogeneous data collection and it is a tool allowing to monitor the Group’s environmental performance.

Targets: The progressive deployment of internationally recognized environmental management systems in all the activities of the Group (industrial, planning, coordination, services, etc.) represents a strategic target of Enel’s environmental policy.

Enel acknowledges the vital importance of climate change among its responsibilities as a large global company in the energy field and has started to take action years ago to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in all the countries in which it operates, both by observing the obligations prescribed by the ETS (Emissions Trading Scheme) Directive and by enacting a long-term strategy. In this context, its CEO has signed the Eurelectric initiative under which 60 companies are committed to transform by 2050 the electricity sector into a ‘neutral’ industry as regards CO2 emissions.

Water resource management is increasingly important and Enel is constantly monitoring its generation sites that are located in areas where there’s  risk of water scarcity, in order to manage water resources with greater efficiency. The Enel Group draws water from water sources mainly for industrial purposes, such as cooling, desulphurisation, abatement of nitrogen oxides, etc.

The emissions of some substances into the atmosphere have a polluting effect, while those of other substances contribute to the greenhouse effect. The emissions into the atmosphere, which are quantitatively most significant and typical of Enel’s industrial activities, are as follows: in the first category, sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOX) and particulates; and, in the second category, carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) and methane (CH4).

Enel constantly monitors its impacts on the areas affected by its activities, paying considerable attention to quality and quantity of liquid releases. Enel’s efforts to protect the basin are focused on reduced consumption of water and on chemical and biological purification of releases. In thermal power generation, biomonitoring surveys conducted in various sites of different countries indicate that the impacts (thermal and physical changes) of water releases from open-cycle cooling circuits and cooling towers are negligible.

The optimized management of waste releases is a priority for Enel, which aims at the decrease of waste production, the increase of waste recovery (also by better sorting), the qualification of suppliers of waste disposal services and the use of information systems for waste traceability. Waste management in Italy has achieved excellent results. Thanks to consistent improvements compared to previous years, Enel was able to almost totally recover its waste.