In Oz, and Green

“Demand for freshwater will exceed supply by the year 2030. Australians have the highest per capita water consumption in the western world. By the year 2025, two out of every three persons will live in moderate to high water stress conditions”

Heavy reading, delivered to my on a water bottle by Sue and Colin Lennox, co-founders of Oz Green.

Sue and Colin are passionate about clean water. They are also passionate about the belief that something can be done to reverse this trend. Specifically, they believe in the potential of young people to catalyse this trend, and so, ten years ago they set up Oz Green, an organisation which harnesses the leadership of young people into environmental projects. One of their programmes is ‘Youth Lead’, a programme designed to give 15- 25 year olds the opportunity to examine their role in the world, and look at ways in which they can build the skills required to live sustainably.

“We recognise that the challenges we face on the planet now are not going to be easily addressed’, Sue explained, ‘and the key characteristics that we will need are things like resistance, resilience and tenacity’. The Youth Lead programme is designed to build these skills, and enable current ‘young leaders’ to change both themselves and their communities. They also work with schools to care for rivers in their local environment.. plus they have a team of young people in India at the moment, working alongside local communities to help clean up the Ganges and attending the 5th International Youth River Congress. You can read their blog here

Thanks for that bottle of clean water Sue and Colin, and for future bottles...

tags: Water, Green, Australia, Social Entrepreneur, Environment, Rivers