Enel and Schneider Electric Join the World Economic Forum in Launching the Toolbox of Solutions for Urban Transformation

October 6, 2021

Schneider Electric and the Enel Group join the World Economic Forum (WEF), the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation, to announce the launch of the beta version of the Net Zero Carbon Cities Toolbox at the Sustainable Development Impact Summit (20-23 September 2021).   

This digital platform contains a range of decarbonization solutions to foster urban transformation, across energy, buildings, mobility, water, and waste management. Users are guided through a process to identify and prioritize the solutions that better answer their specific needs. This database of solutions comprises policy, business, and finance models that result in reduced emissions, and create local value such as green jobs and improved air quality.  

The beta version brings together over 200 real-life case studies and solutions from over 110 cities across the world. Access to the Toolbox of Solutions is open to all, in particular, it is aimed at city leaders, national government leaders, and businesses. Users can browse the database and search solutions based on attributes or to address their most pressing local challenges.  

Included in the Toolbox of Solutions, the users will find integrated solutions from Enel aiming to deliver decarbonized, sustainable, and resilient urban ecosystems in cities across the world. With a focus on smart energy infrastructure, Enel’s Open Meter is the new generation of smart meters reflecting the most recent developments in the market and technology in the field of advanced metering and power grids remote management. In Italy alone, where the technology will reach more than 35-million customers by 2025, this second-generation smart meter device allows the collection of more than 7,000 billion data points per year, including almost real-time use and electrical parameters to enable big data analytics for the grid. It is a digital enabler that improves customers’ awareness and understanding of their electricity-consumption habits and favors more efficient and sustainable consumption models. In addition, it allows consumers to take a proactive role in monitoring and controlling appliances such as solar rooftop, home automation, and electric mobility, promoting new advanced energy services diffusion. In line with the Group’s circular economy approach, the Open Meter is designed and manufactured using regenerated plastics, emitting 6 per cent less CO2 and producing 122g less waste for each Open Meter vs. a conventionally produced meter. 

Several solutions successfully implemented by Schneider Electric are also included in the platform. They highlight, in particular, how energy efficiency can drive both energy and material savings, which can be reinvested in city infrastructure and community projects, including infrastructure retrofits and upgrading municipal buildings with HVAC systems and smart automation controls. For example, in Holland, Michigan in the United States, the city leaders partnered with Schneider to embed energy goals into their master energy savings plan, to address infrastructure retrofits while achieving sustainability goals, thus helping all the city’s residents reduce energy usage by 30 per cent to 50 per cent. 

The Toolbox is the third deliverable of the “Net Zero Carbon Cities” program; a WEF initiative whose objective is to align and scale efforts across businesses, cities, and national-level governments to deliver urban ecosystems which are sustainable, resilient, and equitable. The program is co-chaired by Mr. Jean Pascal Tricoire, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Schneider Electric, and Mr. Francesco Starace, CEO and General Manager of Enel Group. 

Last week the initiative also published a briefing paper on Urban Transformation: Integrated Energy Solutions showing how the built environment and mobility can serve as the foundations to kickstart urban transformation and decarbonization anywhere in the world. 

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