In Canada – as is the case globally – the last few years have seen significant increases in the volume and pace of activity focused on advancing the circular economy. This is a sign that thoughtful policymakers, business leaders, and innovators across the country are starting to see “circularity” as an effective and unifying approach to achieving net zero emissions, addressing pollution and biodiversity loss, enhancing competitiveness, and fostering a stronger and more resilient economy.
Advancing a circular economy for Canada represents an enormous opportunity. Achieving this, however, will require a national strategy and a circular economy innovation network – a ‘network of networks’ – that can bring an ecosystem of stakeholders together to in a coordinated fashion, find synergies, and build the tools, programs, and capacity to implement and accelerate circular economy solutions across businesses, industry sectors, supply chains, and communities.
This is a unique moment in time where need and opportunity converge through an initiative such as the one being proposed. The objectives of such an innovation network are to:
The circular economy innovation network brings together ecosystem partners from across Canada to build on recent investments, leverage living lab models, demonstration projects, research efforts, and accelerators, to scale knowledge exchange, advance regional clusters, and support sectoral transition projects.
This CE innovation network is designed to position Canada as a leader in circular economy innovation and send a strong signal to industry, investors, and the innovation community.
Creating a CE innovation network for Canada requires bringing together a broad, multi-sectoral set of stakeholders from across Canada that includes industry, SMEs, academic institutions, governments, and non-profit organizations. A small group of champions has already been working together to build the beginnings of such a network and develop a supportive strategy. More than 3 dozen organizations so far have provided letters of support, with core partners including:
Download the Backgrounder and Slidedeck Overview. We welcome the opportunity to meet with those interested in exploring this initiative with us further.
To arrange a meeting, or to share feedback directly, please contact Paul Shorthouse, Managing Director, Circular Economy Leadership Canada, at pshorthouse@circulareconomyleaders.ca