AFTER many years of championing environmental causes in the Bellingen Shire and abroad, OzGREEN Co-founder Sue Lennox has been awarded an AM (Medal of the Order of Australia) on the Australia Day 2022 Honours List.
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Recognised for her significant service to water conservation and the environment, the nomination left the social entrepreneur speechless.
"I couldn't believe it, the whole thing came as a bit of a shock but I'm delighted, absolutely delighted," Sue said.
"I'm very excited to receive Australia Day recognition for all the work done with OzGREEN, and in the community to protect and preserve our river."
Over the last few decades, Sue has championed many causes and initiatives, including the Great Eastern Ranges Initiative from 2007 to 2013 and the Streamwatch Program, a water-monitoring project under the auspices of Sydney Water in the 1980s.
Her work frequently attracts a high amount of praise and more than a few awards and accolades.
Previously, she was awarded an Australian Museum Eureka Prize in 2007, The Banksia Environmental Award in 1997 and a Veer Bhadra Mishra Environmental Award in 2019.
She was also listed as one of Sydney's Top 100 Most Influential People in 2007, and won the 2020 NSW Senior Australian of the Year Award.
However, a particular point of pride for the former high school science teacher is her work with OzGREEN (Global Rivers Environmental Education Network Australia Inc), a company she founded with late husband Colin Lennox.
While with OzGREEN, Sue has been the Chief Executive Officer a board member, founded the Youth Leading the World Initiative and developed the Friends of the Ganges Program.
Sue has played a key role in designing and delivering OzGREEN programs since 1992.
We decided that this was going to be our life's work, so we left our jobs as teachers and started OzGREEN in Colin's mother's garage.
- Sue Lennox
These programs have directly involved over 50,000 people from urban, regional, remote, corporate and Indigenous communities in Australia, India, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, USA, Canada and Central America.
She also regularly undertakes work to conserve and protect streams and waterways in NSW and the Murray-Darling Basin.
"OzGREEN was founded over 30 years ago and has since grown to have a presence all over the world," Sue said.
"During our early years, Colin and I were on a trip to India and after we tested the river water, we realised a lot of what we were doing in Australia had applications elsewhere.
"We decided that this was going to be our life's work, so we left our jobs as teachers and started OzGREEN in Colin's mother's garage."
OzGREEN's latest venture is the Resilient Communities Program, designed to assist communities in understanding local and global challenges, improve disaster preparedness and strengthen community resilience.
Under CEO Anton Juodvalkis, it was a rousing success and will launch with renewed funding in March.
"Since Anton stepped up to take on the role of CEO we are back bigger and better than ever," Sue said.
"The success of the Resilient Communities Pilot Program has attracted some funding, so we can now expand into four local government areas, the Macleay Valley, Nambucca Valley, Coffs Harbour and Clarence Valley.
"OzGREEN has been very successful the last few years and we still have some more exciting initiatives on the way."
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