Nicola’s tune for the soundtrack of his life is Coldplay’s Up&Up. He’s that kind of guy – an optimist who believes in the power of sustainability and someone who is convinced we can navigate our way out of the climate change maze.
His journey to the position of Head of Sustainability at Enel X began many years ago. After graduating, he went to London, headed to the city and worked in finance.
After a few years he began to rethink his values and what he really wanted to do with his life on a daily basis. “That's the reason why I started work on a sustainability startup,” he explains. “I built a digital platform that was going to satisfy the needs of people that were starting to learn about sustainability, but didn't really know how to implement it.
“We were effectively matching together people with the companies that were providing sustainable services. This was a very important experience for me that really gave me proof that sustainability was the right path.”
Nicola was working for the wider Enel Group at the time and this is when the opportunity of a lifetime arose. In 2017 he was made Head of Sustainability at Enel X and was given the chance to apply his own vision across the company.
Indeed, his role is focused on making those solutions more and more sustainable – sustainable from an environmental and social point of view.
“There is also an important role of advocacy in terms of sustainability,” notes Nicola. “Which is both internal and external. Internal, because we know how vital it is for employees and external because it's important to communicate a concrete message in terms of how we leverage sustainability every day.”
Throughout Nicola’s role there is a symbiotic to his past career in finance. “The financial market has a concrete way of approaching things,” says Nicola. “Because we are talking about the numbers and we are talking about business. With this in mind, the aspect of sustainability that needs to be absolutely changed, is its status as an abstract or theoretical concept. It must be a concrete business and a solid philosophy. This is where I really like to make a difference.”
Nicola passionately believes that companies don't need to be afraid of saying that behind sustainability, there is a business, and that for these two aspects to be successful, transparency is needed, simply because the economic system clearly works according to certain rules. In doing so companies can keep reinvesting in new sustainability.
Nicola knows he has got a big job ahead of him at Enel X but is excited about the possibilities of sustainability, especially if his influence can spread throughout companies, nations and individuals. After all, making a difference is the reason he’s doing this.
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