Sustainability

The Green Team is getting excited for Term 2!

We are excited to announce that the Green Team has hit the ground running in Term 2 and is pumped for a massive term, and year, ahead. Our Sustainability Coordinator and the Student Leaders have been pondering and brainstorming about how we can make Brentwood even more sustainable and environmentally friendly. We have also been busy in the Green Space, planting new drought-tolerant plants, as well as weeding and pruning. We have some great ideas planned for this term, including a Monash Schools Sustainability Forum, as well as Community Day and World Environment Day activities.

Contact the Green Team

Got a questions, idea or suggestion for the Green Team? Or perhaps you have some old gardening equipment in the garage that you’d like to donate? Feel free to send us an email: GREENTEAM@ms.brentwood.vic.edu.au

Did you know that the Brentwood Green Team also have their own website? It’s true!!

Check it out: Brentwood Green Team

Green Team meet weekly on Tuesdays at Lunch Time in M04

If you’re passionate about changing the world and making a difference, now’s the perfect time to join the Green Team. Come along to a Green Team meeting to see what we’re up to. Current Brentwood students can also join our Teams group by following this link:

Brentwood Green Team 2026 | Microsoft Teams

Together, we can work toward a more sustainable and eco-friendly future. 

Term 1 Wrap: We had a busy and fantastic start to the year in Term 1. See below for a wrap-up of the events so far:

AESL Learning for Sustainability Conference on Friday 27th February,
Clean-Up Brentwood Day on Monday 2nd March,
Athletics Day Green Team sausage sizzle and CDS competition on Thursday 5th March,
Community Day on Monday 23rd March
Earth Hour on Friday 27th March

Learning for Sustainability Conference: Earlier in the year our Sustainability Coordinator attended Eastern Alliance for Sustainable Learning conference, where he got to meet with local council representatives, as well as industry and education experts in the fields of waste reduction and sustainability.

Interactive workshop sessions attended focussed on one of the school’s main sustainable goals of waste minimisation. Topics covered included transforming waste challenges into opportunities for circular action and addressing some of the real barriers that educators face in secondary schools. These include waste from multiple sources, such as food waste, e-waste, clothing and textiles, paper and books, plastics, and art/craft/stationery and school furniture. The workshops highlighted current innovation and global best practice that benefits and can engage the entire community.

Using the Circular Initiative Design Canvas, participants identified material flows and designed practical interventions to common problems, that create meaningful change and build collective agency in the school and wider community context. This goes beyond recycling, encouraging innovation that turns waste into value and transforms students into design thinkers and problem solvers.

There were also two presentations from compelling speakers:

Cate McQuillen: award winning Australian co-creator of the animated stories of Dirtgirlworld and its live action series, Get Grubby TV. Drawing on her love of nature, she helps her audience explore the world, where we belong in it and when and how we can shape it. She is committed to the notion that ideas, words, and actions can influence a generation.

Dr Clare Walters: Lecturer in Human Sciences and Health Geography, in the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne. She has examined the health impacts of air pollution in Australia and how evidence can inform more effective mitigation and public policy. Her interest in environmental exposures such as vehicle exhaust and their links to non-smoking-related lung disease, led her to Idle Off. Idle Off is a campaign to protect kids’ health by reducing air pollution around schools and childcare centres, by switching engines off when waiting at drop-off and pick-up times.

Mr Jacob Bodna

Staff Sustainability Coordinator

Clean-Up Brentwood Day

The Brentwood Community had a great Clean Up Day during Clean up Australia Day! We had three classes, including Year 10 Environmental Science, and 2 junior Science classes join us in the cleanup process, and we worked hard to clean up the entire school and picked up over 15 bags of rubbish! We worked in groups to cover the entire school and were able to dramatically clean up the Brentwood school grounds to make our school looking spick and span once again.

After the clean-up process, the Brentwood Green Team worked hard to sort through the rubbish and audit the most common rubbish types and items. The most common type of rubbish by far were plastic food wrappers. This data allows us to decide how we can improve the school grounds and find exactly where the most rubbish is located on the grounds. We can then work with the canteen to find more efficient ways to keep the school grounds clean and tidy. We encourage everyone to try and find a bin for their rubbish, and together we can make the school a cleaner place!

Thank you Ms Warner, Mr Cvek, Ms Gopalakrishnan and Ms Mortimer, for your support and assistance.

Contributed by Brentwood Green Team 2026 member

Daniel W (Year 11)

Athletics Day Green Team sausage sizzle and CDS competition:

This year’s athletics day BBQ AND CDS collection was very successful. There was a high demand for sausages and drinks, and they were sold out very quickly. It was a very hot day but luckily the shiny pieces of ice kept the drinks cool. Many students were very willing to donate cans for the CDS, I even saw some students collecting discarded cans. Thank you to all staff and students who helped cook the sausages and make sure to stay green. ♻️

The Green Team ran a competition to see which House could collect the most cans/bottles and the most points for their House. Everyone who disposed of their empty drink container responsibly into one of the House bins earnt points for their House and went into a raffle to win a $20 gift card.

The results were as follows:

4th place: Jacaranda - 59
3rd place: Wattle - 74
2nd place: Waratah - 106
And in 1st place, with a whopping 279 (more than all the other Houses combined!!) was Banksia!

Banksia's massive total was almost solely thanks to one dedicated student, Tyler S from 9E1, who went around the track at least a dozen times collecting discarded cans and bottles to bring back to the Banksia bin. He should absolutely be commended for his tremendous efforts! Not surprisingly, he also won the raffle.

Over 100 containers were also collected from around the track at the conclusion of the event, bringing the total number of collected containers to just over 700, earning $70 back to the Green Team to use for future projects. Importantly, we were able to divert these hundreds of cans and bottles from going to landfill.

Thank you to all the staff and students who helped make this event a huge success!

For our efforts, we have been named as a finalist for the 2026 ResourceSmart Schools Awards, in the category of CDS Vic Excellence Award - Celebrating schools using the Victoria’s Container Deposit Scheme (CDS Vic) to achieve sustainability goals. Winners will be announced at the awards event at the MCG on Thursday 11 June. More to come…

Contributed by Brentwood Green Team 2026 member

Oliver C (Year 9)

Community Day and Earth Hour:

On Monday 23rd March, the Brentwood Green Team held a stall as part of our Community Day celebrations. We were raising awareness of environmental issues at our school, including our campaigns to reduce the amount of plastic litter on the back of our Clean-up Brentwood Day, and our Container Deposit Scheme program. We were also promoting our Earth Hour campaign to save energy, which occurred on Friday 27th March.

The school participated in Earth Hour by turning off all lights and outlets during Period 5 to try to save energy. The more electricity we waste, the more we negatively impact our climate. Climate change is becoming a major issue in Australia and is slowly starting to become irreversible, as the years go by. The more sustainable we are, the more of a chance we can contribute to keeping a stable climate. Climate change can impact us, our animals, our food chain, our ecosystems and causes extreme weather conditions (heatwaves, droughts, etc.) and it is important that we make our contributions to end this issue as soon as possible. Keep up the good sustainability habits and let's help Brentwood to contribute to using energy wisely!

Contributed by Brentwood Green Team 2026member

Zara O (Year 11)

Brentwood’s partnership with the Eastern Alliance for Sustainable Learning

Brentwood has had a long-standing partnership with the Eastern Alliance for Sustainable Learning (EASL), which has helped us achieve our goal of being recognised as a five-star ResourceSmart School. The EASL is comprised of seven member Councils from Melbourne’s east (Monash, Boroondara, Knox, Manningham, Maroondah, Whitehorse and Yarra Ranges). EASL provides professional development, learning and networking opportunities for early years, primary and secondary schools throughout the year. ResourceSmart Schools (RSS) is a free program offered by Sustainability Victoria that supports Victorian schools to embed sustainability across the school facilities, community and curriculum, while saving resources and money for the school.

Further information:

About ResourceSmart Schools | Sustainability Victoria

Eastern Alliance for Sustainable Learning

Brentwood embraces Container Deposit Scheme (CDS) 

Did you know that Brentwood has its own CDS collection bin? Located outside the House Hub (opposite the Library) students and staff can drop their empty drink cans, plastic/glass bottles, and juice cartons into this bin. When it’s full, it gets taken to the CDS depot in Glen Waverley, with the funds being returned to the school. Please make the effort to dispose of your drink containers thoughtfully, and please don’t throw other rubbish into this bin.

Brentwood is registered as a Donation Partner on the Victoria's Container Deposit Scheme (CDS). Please consider donating to Brentwood by selecting Brentwood as your donation partner on the CDS VIC East App as per the below instructions. Please take your recyclable bottles and cans to your nearest CDS centre. Brentwood Secondary College’s Donation Partner ID is C2000010797.

Our nearest collection point is:

CDS Vic Depot Glen Waverley operated by Scouts Victoria,

12b Aristoc Road, Glen Waverley, VIC 3150 To find your nearest collection point, visit:

Victoria‘s Container Deposit Scheme | Find Locations