FAQs

CPEP’s vision is that by 2030, 25% of Canadian businesses are adopting, disclosing, and authentically embedding a social purpose across their operations and relationships, and collaborating with others to achieve it.

A purpose economy is an economy powered by the pursuit of long-term well-being for all in which business and regulatory and financial systems foster an equitable, flourishing, resilient future.

A social purpose business is a business whose reason for being is to create a better world. Its purpose is to profitably solve the problems of people and the planet without profiting from causing problems. It is the company’s optimal, strategic contribution to long-term well-being for all.

A purpose economy is an economy powered by the pursuit of long-term well-being for all in which business and regulatory and financial systems foster an equitable, flourishing, resilient future. In this economy, social purpose businesses have become mainstream—leveraging their full capabilities, relationships, influence, reach and scale to realize their social purpose and put society on a sustainable path.

By shifting the focus of business from being solely ‘for-profit’ to being ‘for-purpose,’ we rebuild trust in business, mobilize new resources to address society’s challenges, and bring new partners to the table to collaborate with civil society and government—an essential alliance to solve the pressing issues of our time.

Social purpose businesses create meaningful work that uplifts employees and fuels a virtuous circle of employee vitality and business success. At scale, this strengthens businesses, enhances lives, and builds stronger communities. This new business paradigm delivers long-term value for business and stakeholders by improving productivity, encouraging innovation, and driving resilience and societal progress.

At its core, the economy must serve people and the planet, not just the wealthy or powerful. Markets should prioritize solving societal problems and improving lives. Our economic institutions must reflect and reinforce human values, ensuring that the economy serves people and the common good.

Purpose and ESG are related but they are different. Purpose is the organization’s reason for being, its ‘superpower’ whereby it leverages all of its enterprise capabilities to drive value on a social or environmental issue that the company is uniquely capable of addressing through its core business and relationships.

ESG, in contrast, is the company’s approach to identifying and managing its material social and environmental risks and opportunities.

For more insights on the particular role of purpose, read the Project’s case studies.

Purpose is a business model innovation that informs the business strategy, culture and relationships, leveraging all of the organization’s enterprise capabilities to bring its purpose to life.

CSR (corporate social responsibility) instead is focused on improving a company’s environmental and social impacts and philanthropy provides grants and donations to create beneficial social impact. CSR and philanthropy are business-as-usual activities, no matter how valuable, and don’t define why an organization exists.

An example of CSR is Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Women Initiative which provides business education and mentoring to female entrepreneurs. An example of philanthropy is the Coca-Cola Foundation’s commitment of millions in grants to support clean water access, women’s empowerment, and community development worldwide.

In both of those cases, valuable as they are, the companies are ‘giving back’ to community resources that they earned through their day-to-day business. An example of purpose is Maple Leaf Foods’ purpose to ‘Raise the Good in Food’. To bring their purpose to life they are pivoting their business to become the most sustainable protein company in the world. This is not ‘giving back.’ In this case, the very act of doing business will cultivate human and planetary well-being.

B Corp’s released new standards in 2025 make mandatory the adoption of a ‘public purpose’ that outlines the positive and meaningful impact the company intends to make on society and/or the environment. This statement must be adopted by the company’s highest governing body, integrated into its strategy, and made publicly available. This aligns with the Project’s approach to social purpose and its authentic embedment. You can read more about this alignment here. We are pleased that B Corp includes four of our tools among its resources: Purpose Strategy, Purpose Disclosures, Purpose Governance and Purpose Engagement Surveys.

There will be a period of transition, but in about a year after the new standards are fully taken up, all B Corps will have a public statement of purpose that is adopted by the highest governing body, embedded in strategy and monitored by the highest governing body. Under this new standard, then, to certify as a B Corp, a company must first be a social purpose company.

Organizations uncover their ‘why’ by deeply engaging their stakeholders to understand their core competencies, assets and unique social value proposition. Organizations often use the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a framework to identify global issues and challenges where they can drive strategic impact.

For example, a tech company might take inspiration from SDG 4: Quality Education. The company could adopt a purpose to “advance equitable access to quality education” and empower marginalized communities with the knowledge and skills to thrive, and leverage its digital solutions to advance this purpose. There are 17 UN SDGs and the UN estimates that achieving the goals would open up more than $12 trillion in market opportunity.

Social purpose businesses use business model innovation and leverage strategy and stakeholder collaborations to bring their purpose to life. It is not a marketing strategy. Companies are at risk of purpose-washing if they use purpose as a marketing tool without embedding it deeply into the organization. Appropriately embedded, purpose guides and drives the organization’s strategy. Marketing, ESG, philanthropy and CSR don’t drive strategy, though they should support it.

Absolutely! The aim of a social purpose is to solve the world’s problems, profitably. Profits allow social purpose businesses to keep operations running, invest in their social purpose, attract and retain talent and gain investors. Purpose and profit are intertwined in a virtuous circle.

Yes, there is a strong business case for social purpose business that demonstrates that these businesses are more resilient, innovative, responsive and agile. They are able to attract investor capital, and are able to attract and retain top employees. A social purpose business is future-fit to meet today’s market challenges including navigating geopolitical instability, technological disruption, and a changing values-based workforce.

The Project has identified eleven key leverage points to create an enabling environment for social purpose businesses to start, transition, thrive and grow. These engage and support boards, investors, accountants, associations, business schools, government entities and others, to advance social purpose in business.

Our short-term objective is to have 1,000 people endorse and support A Call to Purpose, indicating an uprising of support for social purpose business. We also aim to further engage the 11 levers of change and to build a connected community of purpose leaders to accelerate the social purpose business movement in Canada.

The Project’s long-term objective (its vision) is that by 2030, 25% of Canadian businesses are adopting, disclosing, and authentically embedding a social purpose across their operations and relationships, and collaborating with others to achieve it.

The Project’s leadership team is listed on our website. We’re incredibly grateful for the generous financial and voluntary support of our founders, sponsors and partners.

We launched A Call to Purpose, an invitation from CEOs to CEOs to join them in building a purpose economy. It has been endorsed by hundreds of CEOs and supported by dozens of other stakeholders. 

We have published a significant library of useful resources, contributing to a social purpose field of practice, including Purpose Disclosures Guidelines, Purpose Governance Guidelines, The Social Purpose Professional, Social Purpose Statement Criteria, Employee Social Purpose Lifecycle Tool, and Social Purpose Strategy. You can find all these resources and more freely available on our resources page.

We created a Social Purpose Ambassadors program. This is a network of national CPEP ambassadors who are volunteering their capacity and networks to connect, amplify, engage and grow the purpose economy in Canada.

Sign A Call to Purpose and invite your peers to sign it, too!

Visit the Canadian Purpose Economy Project website for resources and tools to get started on your journey. 

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Prefer a conversation? So do we! Email us at info@purposeeconomy.ca