Operationalizing Ontario's Circular Economy

Introduction

On November 30, 2016, the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority (RPRA) was created by the Government of Ontario to act as Ontario’s circular economy regulator. RPRA was formed as a result of the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, 2016 (RRCEA), which makes producers financially responsible and accountable for the products and packaging they sell into the Ontario market. This approach increases their accountability, measures their performance, and makes them financially liable for ensuring their products and packaging have been collected and processed responsibly.

Under Ontario’s circular economy initiative RPRA is mandated to enforce the new producer responsibility regulatory framework. RPRA is responsible for registering obligated parties, collecting annual supply and performance data, and undertaking compliance activities and enforcement actions when required to ensure producers are fulfilling their regulatory requirements, including meeting targets for waste diversion. The goals of these programs are to reduce the amount of waste generated, increase the amount of waste that is reused or processed, and divert as much waste from landfill as possible.

Challenge

As a newly established regulatory authority, RPRA needed to build, from the ground up, the necessary infrastructure to carry out its mandate. Establishing the technological infrastructure and choosing the right technology systems integrator to create a new Registry would be critical to the program’s long-term success. The Registry would be the primary system to support regulatory reporting across multiple recycling programs under the RRCEA regulation for producer responsibility programs and the Environmental Protection Act for digital reporting programs.

The Registry solution had to accommodate a wide variety of users including producers, waste management service providers who support collection, end-of-life material processing and operational oversight functions, all with varying skills and experiences working with digital solutions. It needed to support users in registering and reporting on volumes of materials and resources. This included the volume of materials introduced by producers, as well as materials collected, hauled, and ultimately processed for responsible use downstream (i.e., reused as is or processed for product development), as well as disposed. 

A key challenge, however, was that the regulatory framework was new and, in some instances, not finalized, as well as being interpreted and implemented for the first time. “It was a very steep learning curve,” recalls Frank Denton, CEO at RPRA. “Initially, the Registry was intended to cover four types of materials with a separate portal for each and they had to be built bespoke, hand-in-glove to fit to align with regulations that we didn't have yet,” added Mr. Denton. This meant that RPRA needed to build a system that could be robust enough to accommodate different reporting requirements for each regulation, yet agile enough to be updated quickly as requirements and interpretations were finalized.

Approach

RPRA chose PwC Canada to be their strategic business advisor and technology systems integrator for the Registry solution. As a trusted advisor, PwC aimed to help RPRA establish itself as a leading circular economy regulator.

From the start, the project had full engagement across RPRA, from the Board of Directors and the executive management team through to staff working on the day-to-day activities. Ken Kawall, Board member and Chair of the Finance and Technology Committee, explains that he and the Chair of the Board sat on the project’s original steering committee.

Given Kawall's technology background as a former Chief Technology Officer and strong trust in the PwC team, he was able to facilitate fast decision making at the Board level, which was vital given the project’s time constraints.

The development process was centred on the end-user experience. The project team focused on learning about end users, building the platform framework, gathering user feedback, identifying issues, and then making quick adjustments. They engaged with a range of industry and government stakeholders and spent time in the field to experience the legacy systems to gain a deeper understanding of the real business scenarios the new system would support.

Impact

The rollout was met with exceptional uptake. The Tires program saw over 70% of its users register independently without technical support from RPRA and over 7,700 businesses registered. The successful first release enabled re-usability across modules, which reduced development time and provided valuable learning to be implemented in subsequent releases. This approach proved effective as the team was able to deliver three major releases on time and within budget.

On a broader level, being able to track the quantities of materials supplied or sold into Ontario and how much is being recovered and circulated back into the economy is an important step towards building a truly circular economy. “As we embarked on this work, it quickly became apparent that our organizations shared a deep commitment to creating positive social impact. Our joint mission was a driving force behind our work, and it gave us a shared purpose that was truly inspiring,” said Justin Wortley, Partner and Salesforce Alliance Leader at PwC Canada.

Ontario is the first and largest province to successfully transition to an extended producer responsibility regulatory framework, effectively covering 13 diverse material types, with the opportunity to expand further in the future. Driven by a deep understanding of RPRA and their users’ needs, a commitment to developing a scalable, robust technical framework, and a collaborative relationship that allowed for the leveraging of collective expertise, PwC was able to help RPRA create a platform that meets the needs of various stakeholders and supports both front- and back-office capabilities.