Example: Montréal Climate Partnership and Circular Economy Roadmap
| Montréal Climate Partnership | Circular Economy Roadmap | |
| City role | The City of Montréal funds and participates in the independent Montréal Climate Partnership. The City attends monthly meetings and is represented on the executive committee, director committee, thematic working groups, and at the annual climate summit, but does not formally control the Partnership or its decisions. | Montréal’s Economic Development Department leads the Circular Economy Roadmap’s implementation and works across municipal departments to connect economic development, climate, waste, planning and procurement objectives. The city sets direction, convenes the ecosystem, supports businesses and uses policy, investment and purchasing power to accelerate delivery. |
| Funding and revenue | The Partnership combines City of Montréal funding, foundation support, and annual climate summit sponsorship. The City currently contributes around one-third of the Partnership’s budget; current foundation funders include the Foundation of Greater Montreal and the Trottier Family Foundation. | The first action plan is backed by CAD 7 million for new circular economy projects and influences more than CAD 100 million in municipal funds. |
| Operating model | The Partnership brings together approximately 100 organisations across a director committee, thematic working groups, and a summit task force, rather than through a single membership body. Participation has developed largely through personal networks, referrals, and organisations approaching the Partnership; formal membership criteria are now being developed. | An open co-creation model combines business consultations, sector-specific workshops, institutional discussions and public consultation. Nearly 100 briefs were submitted, more than 500 people participated and around 400 stakeholders were consulted while the roadmap was developed. |
| Scale and governance | The Partnership is an independent, neutral organisation created to mobilise action on the 98% of emissions that the City does not directly control. A director committee of around 25 organisations meets approximately four or five times a year as a forum for dialogue, rather than as a governing board; a long-standing executive committee provides continuity. | The 2024–2030 Roadmap is delivered through two three-year Action Plans. The first Action Plan includes 20 actions and 104 projects, coordinated through internal, technical and partner committees, with contributions from more than ten municipal departments and delivery partners across the business ecosystem. |
| Key partners | The City of Montréal, major businesses, banks and other financial organisations, universities, foundations, environmental groups, non-profits, and civil-society organisations. | Businesses, entrepreneurs, sector and professional associations, social economy organisations, research institutions, the Chamber of Commerce, accelerators, investors, provincial agencies, and relevant municipal departments. |
Introduction and context
Montréal’s approach has two distinct but complementary components. It combines an independent city-business climate alliance (The Montréal Climate Partnership) with a municipal circular economy programme (Montréal‘s 2024-2030 Circular Economy Roadmap) that is positioned as an economic development priority. Both the Partnership and Roadmap show how city-business climate collaboration can combine convening, market signalling and practical business support. They sit within the City’s broader climate action framework, set out in Montréal’s Climate Plan 2020–2030, which recognises collaborative climate action and the circular economy as important levers for achieving the City’s climate objectives.
The Montréal Climate Partnership was created following the city’s 2019 climate-plan consultations, inspired by Boston’s Green Ribbon Commission, to provide a neutral space for businesses, financial institutions, foundations, environmental organisations, civil society and the City to work together on emissions beyond the municipality’s direct control. The Climate Plan recognises the Partnership as a key collaborative initiative that mobilises organisations around the City’s climate objectives and supports the implementation of climate actions across the territory.
The City’s wider initiatives add a delivery-focused layer to this model. As a demonstrative example for this case study, Montréal’s 2024-2030 Circular Economy Roadmap is a municipal policy and delivery framework, led through its economic development functions to support circular business practices, investment, and market development. It directly contributes to the City’s climate agenda through Action 5 of the Climate Plan, to “stimulate and consolidate the circular economy by creating networks between businesses, stores and community organizations”. It uses evidence, consultation and business support to make circularity a lever for competitiveness, supply-chain resilience, local innovation and emissions reduction.
How the Montréal Climate Partnership works
The Montréal Climate Partnership is an independent organisation that acts as a neutral convenor, bringing together around 100 organisations including the City, financial institutions and universities to accelerate climate action across Montréal.
Independent convening with city alignment
The Montréal Climate Partnership was established as an independent organisation so it could serve as a neutral intermediary between the City and the wider climate ecosystem. The City provides around one-third of the Partnership’s budget, participates in the Partnership, attends monthly meetings, and is represented on its committees, working groups, and annual summit, but does not formally control the organisation. The rest of the budget is provided through philanthropic funding from the Foundation of Greater Montreal and the Trottier Family Foundation, as well as company and foundation sponsorship for the annual climate summit. This independence enables the Partnership to convene organisations that may not otherwise collaborate, while maintaining alignment with the City’s Climate Plan.
Turning challenges into shared action and knowledge
The Partnership convenes thematic working groups around specific climate challenges, such as Buildings, Adaptation, Mobility and Industrial Transition, with potential new working groups, such as circularity in the construction sector, also being explored. These working groups bring together organisations with different perspectives and expertise, including the City, energy organisations, specialist groups and private-sector organisations from the construction sector, to share knowledge and create solutions. For example, the Partnership’s Building working group co-initiated the web-based decision support platform Chauffermieux, which helps households and SMEs across Greater Montréal identify cost-effective options for replacing heating systems, taking account of energy use, greenhouse-gas emissions and peak electricity demand.
Transforming engagement into public commitments
The annual climate summit has become a major convening and mobilisation mechanism for the Partnership, bringing the wider climate community together and creating a focal point for organisations to announce new commitments. Around ten major commitments are typically announced each year, including new investments and projects important to Montréal. The summit provides both visibility and a form of positive pressure for organisations to keep moving forward, while helping the Partnership build momentum beyond its core committees and working groups.
Key learnings and insights
Protect independence while building strong links with the city
The Partnership’s independent status gives it credibility as a neutral space where businesses, financial and philanthropic organisations, environmental groups, civil society, and the City can collaborate without the municipality directing decisions. However, independence works best when paired with regular communication and purposeful alignment: monthly meetings, City participation across committees and working groups, and links to the Climate Plan help connect the Partnership’s convening role to municipal priorities.
Design for year-round engagement and continuity beyond individual leaders
A high-profile annual summit can create deadlines for commitments and attract broad participation, but sustained collaboration requires activity between summits. Smaller events, working groups, member presentations, and opportunities to share practice can maintain momentum and reveal unexpected areas for collaboration. Partnerships should also formalise member expectations, strengthen governance, and plan for leadership succession so that relationships, networks, and institutional knowledge are not lost when staff or political administrations change.
How the Montréal’s Circular Economy Roadmap works
Montréal’s Circular Economy Roadmap 2024-2030 is a City-led framework for accelerating the transition towards a more circular economy, with a strong focus on businesses and priority value chains including construction, textiles, food systems, plastics and mobility. Led through the City’s Economic Development function and developed with the business ecosystem, it provides a common direction for City departments and external partners, supported by action plans and projects designed to put circularity into practice.
City-led economic development agenda
The Circular Economy Roadmap is a separate, City-led framework that positions circularity as an opportunity for competitiveness and resilience. Led by the Economic Development Department, it draws on a circularity gap assessment, OECD-supported governance work, and extensive consultation with businesses and institutions. It identifies priority value chains including construction, textiles, food systems, plastics, and mobility and sets targets to double Montréal’s circularity index by 2030 by 3% to 6% and reach 17% by 2050.
Developing the evidence base and mobilising stakeholders
The City developed the Roadmap through data-led analysis and an intentional, open consultation process. More than 400 stakeholders were consulted, more than 500 people participated, and nearly 100 briefs were submitted. The process not only validated the Roadmap; it also raised awareness, helped elected officials and businesses understand circular economy opportunities, and gave the ecosystem time to align around the City’s direction before implementation began.
Delivering through business support, finance, and market signals
The City is implementing the Roadmap through a three-year Circular Economy Action Plan. Synergie Montréal supports industrial symbiosis by connecting one company’s residual materials with another company’s resource needs. The Circular Economy Fund, developed with private and public partners, mobilises private investment to scale circular business models. A circular economy diagnostic support programme helps companies identify hidden material losses using material flow cost accounting, while circularity criteria in municipal procurement strengthen market signals for local circular solutions.
Key learnings and insights
Frame climate action in the language of business value
Montréal’s experience shows the value of translating climate objectives into the working language that different audiences already use. For businesses, circular economy is presented through competitiveness, supply-chain resilience, local sourcing, operational efficiency and return on investment. This helps keep businesses engaged even when “climate action” is politically or economically difficult to foreground, while still delivering emissions, waste and resource-use benefits.
Take time to build the market before moving to delivery
The public consultation process became a mobilisation tool as much as a planning exercise. Although the city already had strong evidence and a clear draft Roadmap, taking time to consult widely helped businesses, elected officials and internal departments understand the opportunity, see themselves in the transition and prepare to act.
Build a practical backbone, then adapt through shorter action cycles
Montréal combines a long-term roadmap with shorter action plans that can respond to political change, administrative turnover and growing capability. The Partnership is also formalising member expectations and strengthening internal continuity so that relationships and knowledge do not sit with one person. The lesson is to create enough structure to keep direction stable, while leaving room to update priorities as the ecosystem becomes more ready and ambitious.