OzGREEN educates, engages and empowers young people, adults, corporations and communities to tackle critical environmental sustainability challenges (such as climate change and water) and become agents for positive social change. OzGREEN’s transformative learning and leadership programs foster informed participation, harness people’s special contributions and build pathways for ongoing engagement.

Formed in 1992, it now operates nationally across Australia and internationally in India, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and Pakistan.

The Sustainability in Action Process forms the core of all OzGREEN programs. It has been honed through 30 years of action research by OzGREEN Co-Founders, Sue and Colin Lennox. The process was piloted at Freshwater High School 1989-93 (resulting in school designation as a Centre of Excellence in Environmental Education, UN Media Peace Prize and National Youth Environment Award).

As a result they were invited to travel to India to help the Clean Ganges campaign. This journey was to change their lives. Seeing the beauty of River Ganga first hand and measuring the actual pollution levels, broke their hearts. They realised the global water crisis was the critical issue for the Earth and decided to set up OzGREEN. The following year they left their work as teachers, sold their home and began work as two volunteers working out of a borrowed garage.

Today OzGREEN is a best practice provider of sustainability learning and leadership programs (Winner Eureka Prize for Sustainability Education 2007; AAEE Best Practice Case Study 2006; Matrix on Board Evaluation Report 2007). Sue and Colin are recognised as leading Social Entrepreneurs (winners Social Ventures Australia Big Boost 2002) and Sustainability Educators (Environmental Educators of the Year 1998; Top 100 Most Influential People in Sydney List Dec 07; Elders at AAEE Conference Darwin 08).

Since inception, OzGREEN has worked with more than 500 schools, 500 businesses and many thousands of individuals. In FY08 alone, OzGREEN trained 1,100 sustainability leaders through its Youth LEAD, Leading with the Heart, MYRiveR and Living Communities programs, and involved a further 1,600 participants in sustainability education programs and 14,400 students and 12,000 households in sustainability events and actions in Australia (and an additional 20,000 internationally in East Timor, India and Papua New Guinea).

OzGREEN’s leadership programs have resulted in an average 35% reduction in ecological footprint (measured pre and post programme), demonstrating the success of OzGREEN’s success in harnessing personal capacity for change.