The innovative, sustainable circular economy model

Circularity is based on five principles. These are:

• Using renewable energy sources and materials; 
• Product as a service, in effect rethinking products so that they become a service; 
• Creating sharing platforms; 
• Extending the useful life of products; 
• Reusing and regenerating products or components.

 

In short, sustainability is designed into a product or service right from the start. In its supply chain, the circular company insists on the use of renewable energy to process fully recyclable inputs. This is where Enel X comes in, with its renewable power solutions for the home and businesses. Product as a service involves offering access to the product without transferring ownership, to encourage manufacturers and service providers to sell resilient and renewable solutions. One example is Enel X’s public lighting services in cities.

Sharing platforms such as Enel X’s public charging points, JuicePole and JuicePump, increase the use of products during their useful life without increasing inputs.

Ensuring products are usable for as long as possible is the reason we also offer maintenance and repair services with them.

Recovery and recycling, and reusing components, all cut out waste, while innovation makes “upcycling” possible, creating something more valuable than the original when a product reaches the end of its useful life.

To help companies and consumers understand the aims of the circular economy and how it works, we have compiled a Circular Economy Factbook to keep a record of all Enel X’s initiatives, projects and innovations in the field.  We see the concept of the circular economy as a driver of competitiveness and innovation in the global market and want to be an accelerator and enabler of circularity for all our suppliers, customers and partners.

 

 

That is the reasoning behind our Circular Economy Boosting Program and the Circular Economy Report. This is a detailed assessment of the extent of a client’s circularity, from design and procurement policies to how products are handled at the end of their life cycle. The criteria employed to assign a Circular Economy Score cover the use of recyclable or biodegradable materials, exploitation of renewable resources, as well as forms of utilization that encourage sharing, efficiency, and the reuse of materials. The Report then sets out ways of boosting circularity – a roadmap for improvements based on innovative solutions to the issues identified. We follow that up by monitoring progress toward circularity. The Report underlines our role as an accelerator and amplifier of an approach that is gaining widespread acceptance in these challenging times.