When Sue Lennox was teaching at Freshwater High in Sydney in the late 80s, she noticed something troubling in her students.

Beyond the normal ups and downs of teenage life, there was a deeper despair - anxiety about their future and the future of the Earth.

That despair came into sharp focus one day after a devastating pollution event. Tens of thousands of fish lay dead in the local lagoon. The young people Sue worked with were horrified. But instead of letting despair consume them, Sue encouraged her students to step up. Together, they brainstormed what they could do to bring about change in their community.

It was transformative. Those shy, uncertain students grew into confident leaders. Their ideas and actions inspired the wider community and turned the school into a Centre of Excellence for Environmental Education.

Sue had witnessed something profound : when young people are empowered to act, they not only shift their own despair into hope, they ripple change outward into the world.

This revelation carried Sue far beyond her classroom. In 1991, she and her husband, Colin, were invited to India to support the Sankat Mochan Foundation Clean Ganges (Swatcha Ganga) campaign in Varanasi. Arriving with water testing kits, Sue was shocked by what she found: extreme levels of sewage pollution in one of the world’s most sacred rivers. She saw clearly that the model of youth-led, community-driven action she’d nurtured in Sydney had global application.

The experience was life-changing. Within a year, Sue and Colin made a bold decision: they quit their teaching jobs, sold their home, moved their young family in with Colin’s mum and founded OzGREEN, working from the garage.

What began with local students cleaning up a lagoon has grown into three decades of grassroots environmental leadership programs spanning Australia, India, Central America and beyond.

At the heart of OzGREEN’s work is the belief that change begins in communities: together, let's be the change we want to see in the world. We’re all about fostering grassroots action - empowering people with the skills, and confidence to drive change themselves - whether that means testing water quality, planting trees, reducing waste or running community initiatives.

It’s this focus on empowerment, hope and action that has kept OzGREEN relevant across generations.

Sue Lennox’s extraordinary contribution has been recognised widely. She was named NSW Senior Australian of the Year in 2020, awarded Membership of the Order of Australia (AM) and celebrated as one of the nation’s most visionary educators and environmental leaders.

Sue’s purpose remains clear: to ignite hope in young people and to nurture a generation of changemakers who can create the future they want to live in.

Today, OzGREEN continues to carry Sue’s vision forward. From citizen science programs like Bellingen Riverwatch and Macro Muster, to fostering youth leadership through Youth Leading the World and community initiatives, waste education, tree planting and wellbeing programs, OzGREEN is all about creating connected, regenerative and resilient regional communities. Just as Sue discovered decades ago, the spark for change starts small - but when people are empowered to act, that spark can transform the world.