By Coro Strandberg, Chair and Co-founder, Canadian Purpose Economy Project
We recently crossed an exciting milestone at the Canadian Purpose Economy Project: more than 500 people have endorsed our Call to Purpose.
For me, this is more than a number. It is 500-plus people publicly saying that business can – and should – play a greater role in creating a better future for people and the planet.
When we launched the Call to Purpose, six prominent Canadian business leaders came together with a message to their peers. They invited CEOs and other business leaders to consider a fundamental question: Why does your organization exist, and for whom?
In recognition of their leadership, in 2025 we presented the six authors with the inaugural Peter ter Weeme Purpose Economy Champion Award. Their Call helped give voice and momentum to a growing movement toward a purpose economy in Canada.
Their invitation was rooted in a simple but transformative idea: that a business can make creating a better world its reason for being, not as an initiative alongside the business, but through the business itself.
That is what we mean by a social purpose business.
A social purpose becomes the company’s North Star. It can influence the products and services it develops, the people it hires, the investments it makes, the relationships it builds and the decisions it takes. As the business succeeds and grows, so too can its contribution to society.
The Call to Purpose began with business leaders speaking to business leaders. Since then, the circle has widened.
CEOs and executives have added their names, along with people from coast to coast who believe this is the direction our economy needs to go.
That matters because building a purpose economy cannot be the work of business leaders alone. Investors, employees, customers, educators, professional associations, governments, communities and citizens all shape the environment in which businesses operate. Each of us has influence over what we expect, encourage, finance, teach, reward and normalize.
At the Canadian Purpose Economy Project, our vision is that by 2030 at least 25% of Canadian businesses will have adopted, disclosed and authentically embedded a social purpose and be collaborating with others to achieve it.
Why 25%? Because we believe that is the level at which we begin to reach a tipping point – where having a social purpose starts to become a normal expectation of business rather than an exception.
Reaching more than 500 endorsements of the Call to Purpose is a small but meaningful marker on that journey.
It tells us there is a growing community of people who share the belief that business can be an engine for good, creating economic value while helping address the challenges facing our communities, our country and our planet.
There is another reason this milestone matters. Movements grow when people see that they are not alone.
Every person who adds their name makes this community more visible. Every CEO who signs makes it easier for another CEO to consider doing the same. And every individual endorser sends a signal that Canadians want businesses to play a greater role in building a better future.
So, to everyone who has signed the Call to Purpose: thank you.
You are helping demonstrate that there is a constituency in Canada for an economy in which businesses exist not only to generate profit, but to contribute to long-term well-being.
And 500 is not the destination. It is encouragement to keep going.
If you believe businesses can help build a better future through the very act of doing business, we invite you to add your name to the Call to Purpose and encourage others in your network to do the same.
Together, we can help make social purpose business the norm and build a Canadian economy designed to help people and the planet thrive.