His Majesty King Charles III is passionate about the environment – and today he met two veterans who are part of the solution. Air Force veteran Louise Burr and Army veteran Shannon Lemanski both completed The King’s Trust Australia programmes and celebrated His Majesty at St Thomas’ Anglican Church in North Sydney this morning, alongside our project officer Simone McKenna.

“It was a standard morning, go for a stroll in the park and shake hands with the King,” said Shannon jokingly.

“The staff were super helpful. They knew we were there, and made sure we were well positioned so we had a better chance of meeting His Majesty.”   

“It was really good,” added Louise. “I was wearing my medals and he asked about them. He asked if we were having a good day, and I introduced him to Shannon and Simone.”

Louise’s family joined other members of the public at the church and her daughter shook hands with both King Charles III and Queen Camilla.  “I’m never washing my hands again,” said her daughter.

An Air Force veteran, civil engineer and mum of three - Louise Burr is no stranger to challenges. She’s the Founder of PerkyPod, a self-watering plant pot manufactured in Sydney.

PerkyPod is a game-changing plant pot that takes the guesswork out of keeping plants alive. It has a patent-pending internal drainage and water catchment system and is suitable for indoor and outdoor use. The optional built-in castor wheels make it easy to move large plants around the house or office.

"I have always loved plants and I want to make plants accessible. Above all, I wanted to help people to stop killing their plants, but I had no idea how do bring my idea to life,” Louise said.

Based in Newcastle, New South Wales, Louise served 25 years and credits the skills she developed in the Australian Defence Force with her success in small business.  

“My military career showed me that the attention is always in the details, so I spent over three years undertaking extensive research and development to ensure PerkyPod is done properly and stylishly,” Louise said.

"There is a tonne of hurdles at the start of your business journey. My time with the military taught me not to give up - there is a solution to every problem, you just have to be persistent."

As a lover of nature, Louise has built perky PerkyPod with sustainability as a core value. The pot is built with as much recycled content as possible and the catchment draw allows water to be recycled. As an added bonus, the pot itself is fully recyclable.

Her design is so innovative, it recently won a Good Design Award for the homewares and objects.

‍Shannon Lemanski is the Founder of social enterprise Aqua Ubique. Shannon creates water from air using cutting edge technology called Atmospheric Water Generation.

An Army veteran and logistics engineer, Shannon’s commitment to clean drinking water stems from his time on deployment to Papua New Guinea.  

After conducting a rubbish run for his unit, the section was approached by locals who asked the troops not to dispose of the plastic water bottles they had collected. Although viewed as rubbish by the Australians, these bottles allowed the locals to collect and store rainwater, reducing their reliance on contaminated water from a nearby creek.

On return to Australia Shannon was shocked to discover not only how bad quality of water was in remote communities, but also several issues associated with regular tap water.

His mission is to provide safe and sustainable water to communities and businesses across Australia.

Shannon is an Enterprise Accelerate Award winner and finalist in the 2024 Sunshine Coast Social Impact Awards.