Canadian cities and communities are on the front lines of some of today’s most pressing challenges — rising costs, constrained budgets, housing and affordability pressures, aging infrastructure, climate impacts, growing waste volumes, and increasing expectations to deliver more resilient and sustainable services.
According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, urban centers are large consumers, using more than 75% of natural resources, creating over 50% of solid waste and emitting up to 60% of greenhouse gases. With over 80% of Canadians living within cities, they are the centre of consumption, and natural incubators for circular innovation.
A circular economy offers practical solutions that can help communities respond to these pressures while generating greater value from the resources, infrastructure, and public dollars they already manage. By reducing waste, extending the life of products and infrastructure, strengthening local supply chains, creating jobs and new business opportunities, and using circular procurement to achieve better value from public spending, local governments can lower costs while supporting economic development and climate resilience.
Across Canada, cities and communities are already putting these approaches into practice through circular economy roadmaps and strategies, demonstration projects, targeted grant and incentive programs, reuse and resource-recovery initiatives, and procurement policies that create markets for circular products and services. Together, these actions position the circular economy not simply as an environmental strategy, but as a practical tool for affordability, fiscal resilience, economic competitiveness, community well-being, and more efficient delivery of local government services.
Circular Innovation Council (CIC) is a national, non-profit organization that empowers communities and cities of all sizes to understand the multiple economic, social and environmental benefits of a circular economy and move beyond planning and into practice. Through place-based pilots, data-driven research, knowledge sharing events, procurement strategies and capacity-building resources, our programs help turn high-level strategy into actionable impacts.
The circular economy transition should no longer be considered solely as a strategy for managing waste and should instead be considered through multiple lenses to support a resilient, affordable, and sustainable future. While this is no easy feat, this is not a path municipalities need to navigate alone. Whether your community has been a valued member of CIC for years or we’re just getting introduced, we invite you to join our upcoming webinar to learn how we can collaborate to turn local action into global impact.
In this information session you will learn about:
Advancing circularity in your community requires collaboration across several departments:
We encourage representatives from any department and from any Canadian city, region, town, or First Nation community to participate in this information session. There is no limit on how many individuals can represent your community.
Have a question? Have suggestions on specific information you’d like us to cover? Let us know by sending an email to info@CircularInnovation.ca
DATE: Thursday, September 17th
TIME: 12-1 PM ET
Online: on Zoom
Can’t make it? All registered attendees will receive a link with the recording.
We respectfully acknowledge that we live, work and play on the traditional territory of many Indigenous Nations and we humbly extend our respect to Indigenous individuals, communities and Elders, past and present, as the traditional custodians of this land.
Circular Innovation Council is a registered charity.
Charity Registration Number: 119112118 RR 0001
