About Us
Our Mission
Our mission is to inform, inspire, and connect people to build capacity for a circular economy.
We believe:
- Listening through conversation identifies where we need to direct our energy to build curiosity about the circular economy
- Collaboration and co-creation are the key to gaining traction for circular economy
- Circular economy education and marketing will enable businesses and municipalities to engage with their communities.
Our Team
The weRcircular team emerged through a collaborative initiative by members of Circular Economy Clubs of Canada. Our team brings together a diverse mix of perspectives and expertise through circular economy education, experience, and passion, making us well positioned to create weRcircular.
Audrey Bayens
Principal, Marketing Manager
Audrey is a purpose-driven professional connecting community with GHG reduction and circular economy principles. As the leader for Circular Economy Clubs of Canada and previous leader of Circular Economy Club Toronto she works to inspire projects that strengthen relationships between citizens, municipalities and circular business. As the initial founder of weRcircular, she is striving to collaboratively shape circular economy community awareness nationally. In addition, she works as a NRCan Registered Energy Advisor, and Advisor for Federation of Canadian Municipalities Community Building Retrofit Program. As an avid volunteer, Audrey sits on the York Region CE Working Group. Audrey has been a leader in sustainability projects with high impact since 2010.
Aileen Ling
Director of Strategy and Design
Aileen is a multidisciplinary designer with an MA in Design for Cultural Commons, where she focused on the topic of using participatory design to enable a civic circular economy. She has worked in the social innovation and cooperative sector supporting social entrepreneurs and youth in starting sustainability-based community initiatives. Recently she started a new role as Executive Director of Makerspace Yellowknife (YK). She also runs a design consultancy called Makeshift Commons that provides creative services for social and environmental values-aligned organizations. She has been a supporting organizer with Circular Economy Clubs of Canada and Circular Economy Club Calgary (virtually) for the past three years.
Desirée Squires
Director of Stakeholder Engagement and Systems Thinking
In addition to being a co-founding director of weRcircular, Desirée is a professional engineer working at Nokia as the Sustainability Specialist and a ESG Principal for one of their global business groups. She previously was the CEO of a cleantech startup formed to introduce a circular economy framework to Canada’s renewable energy industry. She has been an invited guest speaker at national and provincial renewable energy industry events as well as for engineering programs at Cornell University, University of Toronto, McMaster University, and co-op students at Nokia. She has completed two engineering degrees, an MBA, and university courses on sustainability studies through business and engineering departments. She is currently Circular Economy Club Toronto Leader who collaboratively participates in Circular Economy Clubs of Canada projects with Audrey and Aileen, and is the founder of her condominium’s Sustainability Committee. Desirée is an outdoors enthusiast, with a love for rock climbing and competitive sailing.