Circular Economy in 2026: Global Trends, Standards & Implementation for Canadian Organizations

Globally, Circular Economy is moving from concept to action. Is your organization ready?

Against a global backdrop of increasing geopolitical uncertainty, stronger interest in local resource management and security along with a growing sense of environmental stewardship, Canada is entering a decisive phase in its transition toward a circular economy, driven by rising expectations for improved socioeconomic resilience, sustainable and just development and reduced pollution and waste.

ECO Canada is pleased to bring together a diverse, international panel of Circular Economy experts to cover the fundamentals of Circular Economy, focusing on its key principles, standards, practical applications, and implementation challenges. We will also delve into Canada’s evolving circular economy landscape, emerging regulatory and reporting expectations, and practical ways to integrate circularity into product design, procurement, operations, and waste management through value networks.

This webinar also brings together developments to help Canadian businesses understand what circularity looks like today, how such circular standards, frameworks and systems can be applied in real operations of varying types and sizes, and what training and tools are available to support implementation.

Participants will explore:

• What is Circular Economy and its relevance to sustainable development.
• Global Circularity: trends & challenges.
• Circular drivers, enablers & the business case for change.
• A Circular Canada: initiatives & challenges.
• The practical pathway and skills side of the Circular transition

By the end of the session, attendees will have a grounded understanding of how circular economy principles can reduce waste, improve resource efficiency, strengthen compliance, and unlock new socioeconomic and environmental value. All supported by internationally recognized standards.

Speakers:

Mengmeng Cui

As a dedicated sustainability expert, Mengmeng Cui has committed her career to driving the circular economy transition. With a strong background in research and consulting, she has worked with diverse organizations to develop circular economy strategies and policies. Her expertise has been
recognized by Enterprise Singapore, which awarded her the 2023 SSC/SAC Commendation Award. Currently pursuing her PhD in Climate Change and Sustainable Development Policies at the University of Lisbon, Mengmeng is also a research fellow at Ca’Foscari University of Venice, focusing on social-ecological transformation. Prior to her academic pursuits, she spent nine years with Accenture Sustainability Services in Singapore, where she honed her skills in sustainability consulting. She also led the work on carbon credit development and accounting in China for 4 years before joining Accenture Singapore.

Derek Eduardo Luk Pat

Derek Eduardo Luk Pat is a sustainability business consultant whose twenty five years of experience covers several sectors across the Caribbean at senior levels in the private, public and NGO sectors. He has lived and worked in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and the Eastern Caribbean in the Retail, Manufacturing, Distribution, Hospitality, Finance, Consumer Goods, Food and Energy sectors. He is the Founder & Managing Director of The Circular Caribbean Company Limited; a business sustainability consultancy firm which is equipped to facilitate the regional transition from today’s Linear Economy to a more sustainable and resilient Circular Economy.
He is also the Co-Founder / Director of Fed Up Caribbean Limited, whose mission is to monetise surplus food and valorise organic waste across our Small Island Developing States and, in so doing, contribute to regional food security and socioeconomic resilience. Since 2019, he has been involved in the international standards development for the Circular Economy as a member of the ISO Technical Committee 323. He also functions in an advisory capacity to COSTATT’s School of Environment, Circular Economy and Sustainability and served as Chairman of the Advancing Circular Economy Facility Committee under the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund.
He holds an MBA from Heriot Watt University, a BSc. (Hons) Chemistry & Management from the University of the West Indies and is a certified Circular Economy Specialist

Manuel Maqueda

Manuel is an entrepreneur, a professor, a speaker and an international innovator focused on planetary regeneration. His current work explores how circular and regenerative economics can help businesses and governments navigate a world of fractured globalization, resource scarcity, and increasingly fragile supply chains. Manuel Maqueda is Special Programs Instructor of Applied Circular Economics and Regenerative Economics at Harvard University. Previously, he created the Circular Economy online course at the University of California, Berkeley. Manuel leads the Bionomia Institute, a boutique business consultancy specializing in applied circular and regenerative economics. Recognized as an expert and a pioneer in plastic pollution, Manuel is co-founder of several landmark organizations, such as the Plastic Pollution Coalition and SUPER (Single-Use Plastics Elimination or Reduction), a non-profit organization that enables companies to eliminate single-use plastics through a tiered certification program. As a futurist thinker, Manuel is a member of the Strategic Foresight Board of the Circular Economy Alliance, and has been an adviser to renowned futurist organizations, including the Jeff-Bezos-funded Long Now Foundation, dedicated to fostering long-term thinking in the context of the next 10,000 years.

Marc Taillefer

Preceding circular economy interests, Marc was a manager and supervisory trainer in health organisations that led him, later, to train, across Canada, a 3-week management development program for Veterans Affairs Canada. Jumping ahead, Marc became National Quality Manager with the Federal Government to realise, again, that recycling needed to be planned and integrated into operational processes. Implementing many ISO Quality management systems got him to participate, now for 30 years, in writing international management standards on quality, IT, sustainability and now on circular economy management system, ISO 59001. Marc is now concentrating himself on the effective and efficient management of circular economy at the local and the international level, working with CSA, the Center for Intersectoral Studies and Research on Circular Economy, Alliance for Techno-Responsible IT, Regional Counties Municipalities.

Ken Webster

Ken Webster is a Visiting Professor at Cranfield University in the UK and a Fellow at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). From 2010 to the end of 2018, he was Head of Innovation at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a pioneering circular economy organisation, where he helped shape current conceptions of the circular economy. His work on the circular economy was recognised with the award of a PhD from the University of Brighton. In 2023 and 2024, he contributed to the University of Auckland Business School. His book The Circular Economy: A Wealth of Flows (2nd ed., 2017) explored the connections between systems thinking, economic and business opportunities, and the transition to a circular economy. He contributed to the Handbook of the Circular Economy (edited by Alexander, Pascucci and Charnley, 2023) and was a contributor to and editor of the Club of Rome’s Earth for All. He is also an author on the circular economy for UNEP’s GEO-7 report, published in January 2026. A recent book, with an emphasis on exploring different scales, especially in food and agriculture, is ABC & D: Creating a Regenerative Circular Economy for All (with Craig Johnson, 2022). His current interests include the macroeconomic context for a circular economy, including real-cost pricing of fossil fuels and minerals and compensatory mechanisms such as a basic dividend. He considers establishing the systemic conditions needed for a circular economy—including digital product passports and, perhaps, extended producer liability—to be a vital next step.