The first experience of translating our sustainability principles into practice - developing the business while helping communities grow – is embodied by the pilot project in Ferentari. Learning from the experience of our colleagues working in disadvantaged neighborhoods in Brazil, Enel teamed up with the NGOs Policy Center for Roma and Minorities (PCRM) and Carusel, and designed a community intervention based on three pillars:
- area research aiming at identifying the barriers in using electricity safely in the neighborhood
- consultations - engaging with the community and understanding their problems and
- development initiatives - contributing to solving some of the problems of common concern for the community and Enel, such as energy efficiency, education, health, sanitation and others.
The project – while still at the beginning – already taught us more about ourselves than we could possibly have imagined.
Thanks to the bi-weekly energy themed sessions at the Mothers’ Club we realized how difficult it can sometimes be to deal with a large utility company like Enel and how small changes in our procedures can have a tremendous impact in the lives of our customers, particularly the ones who already have to face so many challenges in their daily lives. These realizations will become the basis for a process of profound change of our company and its way of dealing with all customers and their specific problems.
However this is only the beginning. We plan to design interventions based
feedback from the community as well as the conclusions of the research carried out by PCRM and Carusel, which we expect to receive by the end of 2016. The prospects of helping a disadvantaged community improve its access to energy are bright. And the learning experience is invaluable. Better still, there is plenty more to come.