PETER A. VICTOR

SANKEYSIM is a simulation model of material flows and circularity in the Canadian economy. It shows how changes in the circularity of the Canadian economy affect extracted and imported materials, air and water emissions, and landfill wastes all measured in tonnes. These material flows are divided into four groups: biomass, fossil fuels, metal ores, and non-metallic minerals. SANKEYSIM is based on the Sankey diagram of material flows developed by Eurostat for EU countries. Canadian data for 2017 have been used where available, supplemented by estimates based on the relative sizes of the EU27 and Canadian economies. The base year for SANKEYSIM is 2021. 2017 values for material flows were increased by 1.5% to take account of actual and forecast economic growth from 2017 to 2021. Users of SANKEYSIM can generate scenarios for Canada from 2022 out to 2040 by selecting values for key variables as explained in the instructions.

SANKEYSIM was created to inform the report ‘Turning Point’ by the Expert Panel on the Circular Economy in Canada at the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA). Outputs of the model in the report include four scenarios selected to estimate the impacts of various circular measures on material flows in and through the Canadian economy.