Polytechnique Montréal
IN-26: Innovation C

The EDDEC Institute is an interuniversity institute whose mission is to support and promote the training, research and the influence of the University of Montreal, HEC Montreal and Polytechnique Montreal, on environment, sustainable development and circular economy in a spirit of partnership and interaction between the three institutions and the community. Academically, the EDDEC Institute was the forerunner in North America on the theme of the circular economy. Since 2014, the Institute has involved more than sixty researchers from the campus from all disciplines to study all the facets of this new socioeconomic paradigm. One of the fruits of this mobilization was the development of an exhaustive, interdisciplinary, innovative and original research program. In August 2015, the Institute has pioneered the formation of a committee of fifteen strategic stakeholders to work on the transition towards a circular economy in Quebec and to ensure a dialogue with the community. In the absence of a consensus definition at the international level, the committee co-built a Quebec definition of circular economy. The proposed definition is: “Circular economy is production, exchange and consumption systems considered to optimize the use of resources at all stages of the life cycle of a good or a service, while reducing the footprint environmental and contributing to the well-being of individuals and communities”. Furthermore, in addition to having supported the development of new graduate programs incorporating circular economy, the Institute launched in May 2016, the first summer school in circular economy in Canada.