Accelerating Canada’s Purpose Economy

The Canadian Purpose Economy Project is a national initiative designed to transform Canada’s economy. It engages national ecosystem actors to create an enabling environment for social purpose businesses to start, transition, thrive and grow. Junxion Strategy’s CEO, Mike Rowlands, co-founded the project in 2022, helping bring it from an early concept into a visible, credible platform for collaboration and action. Operating at the intersection of business, policy, and social impact, the Project responds to growing demand for purpose leadership and economic systems change. Junxion has played a central role in shaping the initiative’s strategy, brand, and thought leadership, while supporting ongoing engagement through digital channels, events, and partnerships—including with a national group of Ambassadors and an international network of leading social purpose thinkers and practitioners. The result is a growing community that is strengthening connections across Canada and internationally while advancing practical tools, shared language, and momentum for Canada’s purpose economy.

The Challenge

While there has been a surge in interest in purpose-led business, purpose-washing (when companies claim to be purpose-led, but haven’t meaningfully integrated purpose) has also become more prominent. In addition to this, Canada’s emerging purpose-led business ecosystem was fragmented: organizations, leaders, and innovators were working toward similar goals without shared infrastructure, language, standards, processes, or visibility. The challenge was to launch a national initiative that convenes diverse stakeholders, uplevels existing thinking, and quickly builds credibility for social purpose across sectors. The Project also needs to translate big ideas—like stakeholder capitalism and systems change—into accessible, actionable content for businesses, policymakers, and partners across regions and sectors.

How We Helped 

With our CEO as a co-founder, Junxion has helped shape the Canadian Purpose Economy Project from the ground up. We supported strategic positioning, brand development, and the articulation of a clear value proposition for the initiative. We used our expertise in stakeholder mapping to map key ecosystem actors and design tailored engagement pathways for each of them. Our team leads marketing and communications, including content strategy, managing the website, social media channels, and newsletter, ensuring a consistent and engaging voice. Our CEO amplifies the Project’s work through public speaking, webinars, amplification through other networks, and more. We also support event strategy and delivery, convening conversations that are building community and momentum. Throughout this work, Junxion has worked as an embedded partner, adapting strategy as the initiative evolves, aligning messaging with values, and ensuring the Project remains accessible, inclusive, and impact-focused.

Measuring Success

Since its launch, the Canadian Purpose Economy Project has grown rapidly in reach and influence. What began as a fragmented ecosystem now has a shared platform, standards, language, and growing, globally connected and collaborative, national presence. A Call to Purpose, the Project’s flagship declaration, has been endorsed by over 400 people, including influential CEOs from companies like Rio Tinto, Maple Leaf Foods and TELUS. The Project has attracted sponsorship from significant Canadian businesses like Coast Capital, Vancity and GreenShield.

The newsletter, website and LinkedIn audiences have been growing every year, as have resource downloads, indicating the Project’s content is landing with audiences and helping to spread momentum in the purpose movement. In 2025, the website was accessed by people in 42% of the world’s countries. And more than 2,000 people participated in Project-hosted events and webinars in 2025 alone.

The Project’s resources fill critical gaps in Canada’s purpose ecosystem, offering practical tools to help companies move beyond intention through learning, adoption, and implementation. Finally, the Project’s thinking and guidance are being adopted nationally and internationally, including integration into the updated B Corp standards and FCLT’s (Focusing Capital on the Long Term) long-term governance guidelines for investors, representing trillions in assets.

The Canadian Purpose Economy Project will continue to contribute to the social purpose business movement and equip businesses and professionals with the resources they need to champion purpose-led business.