There's more to business than the bottom line – responsible, successful companies must also consider sustainability, too. That's why Enel launched its new Integrated Reporting in digital form, presenting its economic, social, environmental and governance information in a simple, interconnected and clear way.
This digital reporting pulls together financial data as well as Enel's information on social issues, the environment and governance – a holistic approach dubbed "Core&More". That idea views the Integrated Annual Report as a “Core” document that is flanked by “More” in-depth, detailed documents to satisfy the requirements of various categories of stakeholder, including the Sustainability Report, the Enel SpA Financial Statements, the Corporate Governance and Share Ownership Report and the Remuneration Policy Report.
Enel sees the reporting as an "expression of integrated thinking". The aim is to not only reveal the utility's 2020 performance, but also to effectively communicate the business model and the value creation process. That applies to results in the short, medium and long-term outlooks, helping to inform financial decisions by investors and other stakeholders, especially as environmental, social and governance are increasingly significant in terms of assessing the ability to create value for all categories of stakeholders. It's all part of Enel's strategic approach summarised in the Group’s purpose – "Open Power for a Brighter Future: We Empower Sustainable Progress" – to inspire the company and its stakeholders, alongside the new concept of stakeholder capitalism’s belief that "sustainability is value".
"Integrated Reporting 2020 is the new way in which Enel narrates its ability to generate sustainable value for all in the short, medium and long term," says Alberto De Paoli, CFO of the Enel Group. "The new concept of stakeholder capitalism which drives our actions has enabled us to identify and understand the expectations of our stakeholders and to create an interactive and interconnected communications approach. This allows us to integrate the information available in our documents into a holistic vision of the Enel Group and its value creation process through the sustainable business model."
For Enel, the idea is to increase transparency in reporting, allowing stakeholders to better understand the utility's strategy and how it creates shared value for all. For this reason, financial and economic results are presented together with non-financial information.
Moreover, taking full advantage of its digital nature, the integrated reporting enables readers to find out more about the Group, its sustainable business model, its strategy, its process of value creation and its commitment to fighting climate change.
Embedded videos outline the company's wider strategic plan; interlinked documents show the connections between the strategic plan’s goals and their progress; models of short and long-term scenarios reveal potential outcomes; and a variety of interactive charts and maps bring the data to life. This isn't a PDF to read front-to-back – or to search for key profit figures – but one to explore to understand the goals and plans of a company with sustainability at its heart.
“Through shared storytelling, we want to describe Enel's strategy and its sustainable and integrated business model in an innovative way,” says Ernesto Ciorra, chief innovability officer of the Enel Group. "Only in this way can we truly create sustainable progress in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the UN."
For Enel, that's the goal: running an energy utility with the ambition to lead the energy transition, while meeting the needs of all its stakeholders. The company has also shown leadership with its shift to the cloud to better enable renewable energy sources, and this new reporting initiative aims to build on that success. This is innovation in reporting, but it's not just about whizzy digital documents – it's about sustainability and governance being integrated into a company's goals as much as financial considerations.
"By doing this, we can illustrate how Enel's vision combines sustainability and innovation – where the drive for change and our people's creativity steer the Group's constant commitment in harmony and synergy with all our stakeholders, the social context in which we operate, our industrial partners, the financial community and our colleagues," says Ciorra. In short, Enel's integrated reporting shows the way forward for other companies looking to fully integrate sustainability into their strategic vision.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
