Entrepreneurs with ethical fibre
Sidney Ribaux has been an activist since his CEGEP days when he started up an aluminum recycling program. He now heads up Equiterre, a Quebec-based environmental and fair trade group. Michel Venne also got his feet wet in social causes during his student days, then had a long career as a journalist at Le Devoir. In 2004, Venne turned full-time activist when he founded L'Institut du Nouveau Monde, a think tank trying to jump-start citizen participation in public life. For their work in trying to change the world, Ribaux and Venne have been handpicked as fellows in Ashoka, an international organization promoting social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurs are people with innovative solutions to entrenched social and environmental problems, from saving rainforests to getting disadvantaged youth into university.