Looped In: March 2024

Updates from Paul Shorthouse, CELC’s Managing Director

Raising awareness will be essential to advancing the circular economy in Canada, including for circular strategies and solutions that bring economic, social, and environmental benefits. Information and knowledge-sharing are foundational components to this, which must be based on defensible, accessible data, proof points, and evidence-based research.

Government and industry need access to robust, relevant, and accessible information and data in order to make informed policy and business decisions.  This is why CELC has placed a strategic focus on advancing better information and access to data to support circular economy efforts in Canada.  In addition, the Circular Economy Action Plan for Canada identifies information and data as critical enablers for the circular economy, highlighting three relevant Priority Actions:

• PRIORITY ACTION 1.1: Develop and aggregate case studies, success stories, and “every day” examples of CE in action across Canada, including its benefits (economic, social, environmental).
• PRIORITY ACTION 1.3: Develop a key performance indicator, metrics, and measurement framework for circular economy in Canada.
• PRIORITY ACTION 1.7: Develop a national data plan and strategy that identifies what data sources and harmonized / standardized formats are essential to supporting improved business and policy decision-making in Canada, aligned with circular economy principles and activities, including developing national material-flow accounts and intermediary data platforms to allow for the sharing of anonymized data.

Foundational work already exists that can support efforts in Canada, including on measurement frameworks, standards, and enhanced access to data for the circular economy, such as:

• Circle Economy’s Circularity Gap Reporting and material flow analyses
• Efforts by the OECD and UNECE on indicators and guidelines for measuring the circular economy
• At the company level, Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Circulytics and the WBCSD’s Circular Transition Indicators (CTI) performance measurement frameworks
• Six new ISO Standards being released by Technical Committee 323 on the Circular Economy
• Sector specific data, including Statistics Canada’s Physical Flow Accounts for Plastic Materials

CELC will continue to work with partners and other stakeholders to advance the Priority Actions identified above, aligning with and building on existing efforts wherever possible.

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