Sustainability

RSS Awards

Brentwood was nominated as finalists at this year’s ResourceSmart Schools awards. The awards ceremony was held on 13 June at the MCG. We were unable to bring any award home; however, we had the opportunity to network with other schools, winning schools and Sustainability Victoria staff. It was a perfect time to collaborate with other schools, gain ideas and learn about products which can help make our school eco-friendly.

The Minister for Energy, Environment, Climate Change and Solar Homes, Hon. Lili D’Ambrosio and ‘War on Waste’ TV host, Craig Reucassel, commended the Green Team for our work and successes in sustainability at Brentwood.

The Green Team would like to acknowledge the hard work and support put in by students, staff and parents in all sustainability projects at Brentwood. With your ongoing support, we are hopeful in making Brentwood a five-star ResourceSmart School in the future.

Biodiversity Audit

On Tuesday the 18th of June, the Green Team participated in the Habitat Quality Assessment of Brentwood as a part of the Biodiversity Module of the ResourceSmart Schools program. The audit of the college grounds included identification and recording of indigenous plants, animal habitat quality, linkages of school vegetation and habitats with surrounding areas.

The Habitat Quality Assessment score for this audit was calculated as 68 out of 100. The previous score calculated in 2016 was 51. This significant increase in the biodiversity assessment score is the result of the planting and caring of natives done by our college gardener, Mr. Collin King. The Green Team has planted several native trees in the past few years at the Brentwood Tree Day. The team will continue to work on the school’s biodiversity throughout this year to hopefully achieve the fourth star of the Resource Smart Schools certification, by the end of this year.

Plastic-free Brentwood

Plastic Free July is a global movement that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution – so we can have cleaner streets, oceans, and beautiful communities. Plastic Free July provides resources and ideas to help you (and millions of others around the world) reduce single-use plastic waste every day at home, work, school, and even at your local cafe. Their movement has inspired over 120 million participants in 177 countries.

Students at Brentwood have the opportunity to win prizes by participating in this year’s ‘Plastic-free July challenge’. As a part of the challenge, students are required to record the actions taken to refuse and reduce plastic usage in their daily lives and the challenges and successes they had from taking up this challenge. For more information regarding the challenge, please click here.

Please head to www.plasticfreejuly.org for getting involved and gather ideas to reduce plastic usage. We encourage every individual to reduce the amount of plastic brought to the college to create a plastic-free Brentwood.

Please forward your suggestions and feedback to greenteam@ms.brentwood.vic.edu.au.

Aanya Bedi, Dominique Elliott and Jude Mann - Green Team Captains