Laure Waridel

Laure Waridel is a PhD ecosociologist. Committed and engaging, she is regularly described as a "leader" and "influential woman" in both academic and media circles.

An adjunct professor at UQAM's Institut des sciences de l'environnement (ISE), she is also a consultant with the public interest law firm Trudel Johnston & Lespérance (TJL) , as well as a columnist and author. She can be read on Saturdays in the Journal de Montréal and the Journal de Québec, and is heard once a month on Gérald Fillion's program on RDI.

Aware that societý is transformed by individual and collective choices, Laure Waridel fell into the cauldron of civic engagement when she was 15. Over the past 37 years, we've seen her take up numerous environmental and social causes, always in solution mode.

At the age of 20, she co-founded Équiterre alongside current Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault. A pioneer of fair trade and responsible consumption in Quebec, she quickly made a name for herself with her Radio-Canada radio columns (2000-2004).

Since 1996, Laure Waridel has written several books, including "Une cause café" (translated into English and Spanish), "Acheter, c'est voter", "Coffee with Pleasure: Just Java and World Trade", "L'Envers de l'assiette" and her most recent, adapted from her doctoral thesis, "La transition, c'est maintenant".

Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation scholarship holder (2011), her doctoral studies at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva focused on the emergence of an ecological and social economy in Quebec, earning magna cum laude honours for her thesis and summa cum laude for her defense.

Following her PhD, Laure Waridel was Executive Director of the Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche en opérationnalisation du développement durable (CIRODD) from 2015 to 2017, of which she is still a member as a researcher. 

She then played an important role in the Pacte pour la transition, which she co-drafted with Dominic Champagne. This movement rallied nearly 290,000 people, including numerous artists and public figures, around concrete commitments to an ambitious ecological and social transition.

In 2020, Laure Waridel co-instigated the Mères au Front movement alongside artist Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, rallying thousands of mothers, grandmothers and allies around the urgent need to protect the environment to safeguard the health and safety of children threatened by the climate crisis and ecosystem degradation. A movement to which she remains actively committed.

For years, Laure Waridel has been accumulating honours, including an honorary doctorate from the Université́ du Québec à Rimouski, the Insigne du mérite from the Université́ de Montréal, the title of Chevalier de l'Ordre de la Pléiade from the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, the Ordre du Québec and the Order of Canada. But for Laure Waridel, her two greatest achievements each stand on two legs. These are her children: Colin and Alphée.