At Enel we recognize that innovation and sustainability are inextricably linked. Innovation is the key for sustainable success and innovation can only be meaningful if focused on sustainability. We call this Innovability and it is deeply embedded in our strategy. 

We understand that we can only be sustainable by generating measurable long-term social and environmental development benefits. For this reason, we work across the full range of the 17 SDGs and have a specific commitment to six SDGs where we can leverage our influence to making a meaningful contribution to sustainable development. This includes: SDG 4 – Quality education, SDG 7 – Access to affordable and clean energy, SDG 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 9 – Industry, innovation and infrastructure, SDG 11 – Sustainable cities and communities and SDG 13 – Climate Action.

In addition to our company’s own projects, such as Futur-e,  through which we deliver on the SDGs, we have launched an open platform called: openinnovability.com, a crowdsourcing space for solutions devoted to innovation and sustainability and open to everyone.

Led by our Innovability team, the platform aims to facilitate dialogue with stakeholders from within and outside the company. Not only employees can suggest business ideas and solutions to specific challenges but also start-ups, independent innovators, universities, research centers, potential partners, NGOs and other associations.

Linked to the SDGs, we have been posing specific challenges that need a solution and have been launching calls for ideas. While the challenges are open to everyone to access and read, anyone interested to submit ideas needs to register to get in touch with our team to assess and advance the proposal.

Most challenges have been inspired by the SDGs and have included “Water as a way to fuel development” and “Education as a global right”, whilst others focus on project proposals relating to specific business requirements, such as renewable energy with “Technologies for renewable generation” or “Circular economy business models for a sustainable development”.

Key results from the crowdsourcing activity, include:

• More than 40 challenges posted in one and a half years,
• More than 400.000 potential solvers,
• Collected +1.500 solutions form75 countries,
• More than $300.000 rewarded to winners of the crowdsourcing challenge.