Sustainability

Brentwood bags three awards! 

On Thursday, 2nd June, the Green Team students attended the annual ResourceSmart Schools (RSS) Awards at the MCG. We were shortlisted as finalists in three categories and were lucky to win all three awards: Student Action Team of the Year, Community Leadership School of the Year and ResourceSmart School of the Year. 

Student Action Team of the Year 

The Brentwood Green Team comprises 30 students from Years 7–12. During our weekly meetings we discuss how to tackle climate change, often with a touch of creativity. From developing online resources during remote learning to crafting the school’s Towards Zer0 Bremissions plan, which won them a Premier’s Sustainability Award, we explore all available avenues to promote sustainability. 

For the Towards Zer0 Bremissions plan, we calculated the school’s emissions using resource usage figures. We implemented strategies based on using renewable energy and planting trees. We even put together a cookbook with meat-free recipes, launched the Student Engagement and Voice in Environment Network (SEVEN) and invited other schools to join the webinar Climate Action: Target 2030. 

Community Leadership School of the Year 

Brentwood generates 40% of its electricity usage with renewable energy, promotes commingled recycling, composting onsite, and community-based tree planting. We are committed to our program ‘Towards Zer0 Bremissions’ and the students play a crucial role in inspiring the community to act. The Green Team supports all major environmental events, such as Tree Day, Earth Hour, and National Recycling Week by releasing videos and social media ads. In 2021, we also participated in the Safe Water September campaign, raising $1,200 for people in disadvantaged communities.  

The Green Team organised webinars on climate action, which were attended by other schools and the wider community. During remote learning, 180 members of the school participated in the Fight for Planet A daily quiz, illustrating the high level of engagement at the school. In 2021, the efforts of Brentwood Secondary College received welldeserved acknowledgements by achieving 5 Star ResourceSmart Schools certification and winning the Premier’s Sustainability Award in the Climate Action category. 

ResourceSmart School of the Year 

In 2021 Brentwood Secondary College was recognised with a Premier’s Sustainability Award, a testament to the tremendous commitment of a team who believe they can change the world. We reduced our emissions by 23% in 5 years, have adopted renewable energy, reduced waste and water use, and ran creative initiatives, such as Project Brentwoods, to plant forests around Victoria. Brentwood aligns our curriculum with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. 

As well as winning the three awards, we had the opportunity to setup a stall to showcase Brentwood’s projects and progress in sustainability in reaching the 5-Star RSS milestone. We did this with a banner, posters, Sway, an interactive 3D model of the school, statistics about our usage/offsets and business cards. Students and teachers visited our stall to ask us questions about what has worked well for us and what they could do to improve their school. A lot of people wanted to know about our recycling stations and our solar panels. 

Grace Kingston, Year 9 Student