Julie Sturrock

That she may have been dismissed by some as naive was proof that there is still a place for idealism in politics. She was committed to environmental issues long before they were trendy or mainstream. Dedicated and dogged, her persistence helped change things at the most local and highest levels. She was testimony that one councillor can make such a notable difference.

Born Julia Mary FitzGerald in Exeter, Devon, to Ned FitzGerald, a foundry worker from Ireland, and Patsy, a hairdresser who worked from home, she was a sister to Eve and had two younger brothers, Shaun and James. Her environmentalism came from nothing more than growing up in a family that appreciated the outdoors and believed that you tidied up after you.

Educated at St Nicholas Primary and Mount St Mary's Convent School for Girls in Exeter, she applied to do English and Philosophy at Dundee University, even though she was not very sure where Dundee was. Nonetheless, she was accepted and arrived in the city in 1970.

It was in Dundee that she met George Sturrock, a history student, and joined the Labour Party. After graduating in 1973 she headed to Glasgow to do a diploma in secretarial studies at Strathclyde University before a short spell working for BBC4's Kaleidoscope.

She returned to Dundee in 1974 to marry George and took a job at Dundee Rep. However, she followed her new husband into teaching, taking her first job at Menzieshill High School in 1976, the school her children would attend and where George would become deputy head. She taught English there until 1980 when she left to have their son Sam, who was followed the year after by their daughter, Becky.

Sturrock returned to teaching part-time in 1988 at Dundee Institute of Technology, where she lectured in communications. This was also the year she was first elected to Dundee District Council.

As a councillor, Sturrock found that environmental issues were not on the agenda. But her colleagues on the council were a largely decent bunch who eventually gave in to her badgering and supported her call for more efficient and sensible ways to deal with the city's rubbish. So began the greening of Dundee.

She defined the city's early ambitions for recycling, which put Dundee at the forefront and set the bar for other councils to follow. However, she refused to take the credit for Dundee's infamous talking bins (they played a recording of a fearsome Dundonian warning "dinnae drap your littahr, please pit your littahr in tha bin").

Following the creation of the unitary authorities in 1995, Sturrock was elected to the new Dundee City Council and became the environmental and consumer protection department convenor. This took her on to a more national platform, the Protective Services Forum at Cosla, and then membership of the east board of Sepa.

From 1999 to 2003 she was leader of Dundee City Council at the same time that her husband became president of the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association. Despite their commitments, Sturrock's family were her priority. She created a happy home that the Sturrocks were only too glad to share with friends and colleagues. She was a qualified aromatherapist, and many visitors benefited from her rubs and tinctures as well as plentiful cups of tea and discussion. Some of her friends called her But Surely: she always had an alternative point of view.

Ever the activist, Sturrock was a member of CND, Friends of the Earth, The Woodland Trust, Engender, Greenpeace and the Fairtrade Forum. Within the local community she was involved with a huge number of organisations over the years, most notably as chair of Dundee Furniture Project and Sustain Dundee Environmental Trust and as vice-chair of Dundee Solar City Project.

Nationally, she was a member of Forward Scotland, SERA and Keep Scotland Beautiful, and chair of the Recycling Institute. She was appointed to the main board of SEPA in 2007 and, last year, to the board of Scottish Natural Heritage. In November 2007 she was awarded an OBE in recognition of her work on behalf of sustainability and the environment.

She is survived by George, Sam, a solicitor in St Helier, Becky, an environmental consultant in Edinburgh, and her brothers and sister in Exeter. She is buried in the memorial-free wild flower meadow of Dundee's Woodland Burial Ground, which she helped found. By Shona Main