Nine nominees are up for this year's Creating the Greenest County Hero award – and you can decide who wins.

The Hero award recognises an outstanding individual and the contribution they have made in Suffolk's ambition of creating the greenest county. It is often the drive and commitment of just one person that brings people together, with their ideas bringing a project to life.

The winner will be decided by a public vote which is now open, and closes on 28 February: 

The nine Hero nominees are: 

• Adrian Cooper
• David Appleton
• Debbie Bartlett
• Frederick Cook
• Jon Owen
• Libby Ranzetta
• Linda Grave
• Matthew Applegate
• Rachel Kellett

You can read all about the nominees, suggested by members of the public, on the Creating the Greenest County website, where you can also place your vote.

Last year's Hero was Jason Alexander, founder of Rubbish Walks and curator of the UK's first vintage litter museum, who said: "Winning the Suffolk Hero Award has been such a wonderful experience and definitely been a highlight of an amazing year. I've had the good fortune to meet countless numbers of like-minded people doing fantastic work across the county.

"Being voted Suffolk Hero has definitely had a positive impact on my work and I'm so grateful for being part of such a wonderful initiative."

Councillor Richard Rout, Suffolk County Council's Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Environment, said: "We've received over 100 nominations across all our Awards categories – another bumper year. It goes to show that there really is a passion in Suffolk's communities for taking action on climate change and helping our environment.

"This year's nine Hero nominees are all inspirational individuals, each doing incredibly different things from nature recovery to recycling. All of which complement the council's ambitions to protect and enhance our local environment. Visit www.greensuffolk.org and vote for your winner!"

The remaining awards will be judged by a panel made up of previous winners, sponsors and environmental experts and winners will be announced at a ceremony to be held in March at The Hold, in Ipswich.

The Awards categories are:

• Waste Reduction and Recycling Award
• Enhancing Biodiversity and Landscape Award 
• Business Award
• Small Business Award
• Community Award
• Hero Award (People's Choice award)
• School Award
• Tourism Award

To vote for your Hero, visit www.greensuffolk.org - voting closes on 28 February 2024.