Circular Economy Leadership Canada launches Action Plan

Canadian advocates for circular economies have published a robust plan to move forward. Circular Economy Leadership Canada, or CELC, published the Circular Economy Action Plan for Canada on October 31 as a roadmap to determining how to reuse and recycle more materials into new products to promote sustainability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.

“Recalibrating Canada’s economy to align its goals for prosperity, while delivering on environmental commitments and social values, necessitates the collective actions of all stakeholders, including government, business, and civil society,” the report states. “The Circular Economy Action Plan is meant as an open-source guide to enable a better understanding of the circular economy and offer ‘on ramps’ for stakeholders to participate.”

Launched in 2018 at the G7 Oceans Summit in Halifax, CELC is a network of corporate leaders, nonprofit think tank experts, and academic researchers.

CELC’s plan identifies five critical enablers to advance circular economies in Canada, priorities to pursue in the near term, and longer-term outcomes. The five critical enablers are information, or raising awareness; collaboration, or breaking down silos that perpetuate linear economies; innovation, or technological advancements; policy, or government regulations; and investment, or funding in new circular economic efforts.

The plan outlines how assembling case studies, knowledge sharing, launching circular economy business accelerator programs, regulations that incentivize circularity, and engaging the finance sector to deploy capital for new circular economic projects can help address the issues associated with the critical enablers.

These efforts, the plan states, will help mainstream the circular economy so that ordinary Canadians can achieve the plan’s goals of reducing the amount of virgin resources extracted for new products. ce/jd