Canada’s financial sector is under increasing pressure to set and meet environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals and sustainable finance targets. Opportunities exist to augment current “green investment” criteria with additional strategies aligned with the circular economy that deliver economic and social benefits while addressing environmental challenges, including climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. However, Canada’s finance sector has not had a common definitional framework or clear guidance to help direct financing into these circular economy solutions.
That’s why CELC partnered with UNEP FI, Delphi, the Ivey School of Business, and some of Canada’s largest financial institutions and leading circular economy experts to launch Canada’s first circular finance guidance document, Financing the Circular Economy: A Guidance Document for Canadian Financial Institutions.
Serving as a sector- and technology-agnostic tool, the Guidance Document provides harmonized definitions and criteria for evaluating circular economy projects and initiatives in order to support lending and investment decisions that can further contribute to sustainable finance targets and ESG goals. The Guidance Document also helps ensure that Canada can contribute to the global circular finance dialogue, while harmonizing with similar international efforts on this topic.
This initiative contributes to the development of sustainable finance and investment taxonomies by offering clear definitions for the circular economy. Taxonomies are critical tools for creating clarity and confidence in sustainable investments and for attracting capital into low-carbon transition projects and priorities. The Financing the Circular Economy Guidance Document lays a foundation for future work in this important and emerging area of finance and investment.
I invite you to download the Guidance Document, share it with colleagues, and consider how it may be useful to your organization.
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