Maximizing material productivity to future-proof Canada’s construction sector
Designing out waste, building in value. Circular Construction Canada is working to reinvent Canada’s construction sector into a resource-efficient engine of innovation, productivity, and resilience.
Circular Construction Canada—formerly Circular Economy Leadership Canada (CELC)— reimagines Canada’s construction sector as a resource-efficient engine of innovation, productivity, and resilience.
Canada’s construction sector is facing rising costs, regulatory pressures, and supply-chain risks, threatening its competitiveness and ability to deliver. Applying a circular construction model will help make the sector be more cost-effective, resource-efficient, and prosperous.
Circular construction creates stronger, more profitable businesses by turning today’s risks into tomorrow’s opportunities. By creating more resilient supply chains, higher resale value, financial sustainability, and market leadership, businesses across Canada have greater opportunity to thrive.
So how do we accelerate the transition to circular construction in Canada? We learn by doing, driving innovation, and scaling what works.
Contact Paul Shorthouse, Managing Director, for more information: [email protected]
Designing out waste, building in value. Circular Construction Canada is working to reinvent Canada’s construction sector into a resource-efficient engine of innovation, productivity, and resilience.
The whole is greater than the individual parts. That’s what inspires me about the power of Generate Canada… the synergies that come from connecting across our various solution spaces.
Paul Shorthouse is a distinguished business leader whose career has spanned three decades, driving sustainability-inspired innovation and impact.
Paul has held executive roles at Generate Canada, including as Managing Director of Circular Construction Canada (CCC) and Circular Economy Leadership Canada (CELC), as well as the Interim Managing Director of the Canada Plastics Pact (CPP). His experience extends to other impact-focused roles with sustainability strategy consultants (Delphi Group and GLOBE Advisors), as the Conference Director for the GLOBE Forum, and as a researcher and SCUBA dive biologist in the first half of his career.
Paul has a proven track record of providing strategic solutions and engaging with senior leaders from business and government. He has a demonstrated ability to build national-level partnerships and collaborative platforms, which he has leveraged to provide thought leadership and technical expertise for clients and partner organizations across the country.
Paul possesses a unique blend of scientific and business acumen, with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Diploma of Technology in Marketing and Entrepreneurship. Paul’s career is marked by his capacity to lead and manage complex and diverse projects, inform policy, and advise both corporate and non-profit institutions through board and committee memberships.
Paul lives in Victoria, BC, with his wife and two children.
Raphael Lopoukhine is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at Circular Construction Canada. With expertise in climate and circular economy policy, design research, and communications, he has led high-impact initiatives across sectors, including writing circular economy reports, advising on environmental policies, and delivering digital solutions for sustainability projects. His ability to translate complex challenges into actionable strategies drives organizational change and fosters stakeholder collaboration. Raphael’s career spans media, government, non-profits, and the private sector, with impactful work in Canada and internationally.
With a growing network of partner organizations across the country, CCC advances thought leadership, technical expertise, and collaborative platforms for accelerating systems change and the transition to a resource-efficient, low-carbon, and financially resilient built environment in Canada.
The circular economy promises to unlock massive opportunities — and solutions to some of our most pressing challenges. How can Canada’s finance sector open the door?
A staggering 30% of Canada’s total GHG emissions result from the operation of buildings, as well as the manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance, and disposal of building materials. Research by the CSA Group in collaboration with CELC shows how circular strategies focused on extending the life of existing buildings through renovation over new construction can make an impact.
Read MoreThe transition to a low-carbon economy will result in increased primary demand for metals like aluminum, copper, lithium, silver, nickel, lead, and zinc – some of which are in short supply. At the same time, the negative impacts of mining activities have come under increasing scrutiny. Can circular economy strategies help address supply and demand by enhancing resource recovery while minimizing environmental impacts? Evolving research shows it’s possible.
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