Project Brentwoods – completed!
Brentwood Secondary College is actively involved in taking action to address climate change by switching to renewable energy, recycling and tree planting. Project Brentwoods, a prestigious campaign launched in 2020, aims to plant 600 trees (mostly eucalypts such as narrow-leaf peppermint, manna and stingy bark) in the Mornington Peninsula to offset nearly 161 tons of emissions and provide a bio-link by restoring the habitats for koalas.
The Green Team is greatly indebted to the generous donations from the students, staff, parents and community members. We raised over $2500 for the purchase and maintenance of those 600 trees.
Thank you Fifteen Trees (https://15trees.com.au/) and Mornington Peninsula Koala Conservation (https://www.mpkoalas.org.au/) for the successful implementation of Project Bentwoods.
https://15trees.com.au/tree-plantings/brentwoods_secondary_college/
Here is a message from the Mornington Peninsula Koala Conservation (MPKC) in response to our Project Brentwoods:
The Somers Koala Habitat Project (Coolart to Cerberus Biolink) has been going well with a fantastic response from landholders with over 70% of them confirming their intent to participate in this revegetation project. Mornington Peninsula Koala Conservation (MPKC) have partnered with the Mornington Peninsula Shire, Parks Victoria and the Department of Defence to include more landholders and with sponsors such as Fifteen Trees and Brentwood Secondary College, this revegetation project has grown by leaps and bounds.
Here’s a few reasons this project is so important:
Recent research from Deakin University suggests that the koala population has been negatively impacted by the highly fragmented nature of habitat on the Mornington Peninsula,
By providing a wildlife corridor biolink it will allow animals including koalas to move safely, to reach vital food resources and help maintain viable populations,
Without this, koala populations will inevitably continue to decline, become isolated and may face local extinction.
Year 12 Tree Planting
The Brentwood Green Team utilised the good weather during the past few weeks to plant natives and fruit bearing trees on the college grounds and in the Green Space.
We would like to thank the ongoing support from the City of Monash and Bunnings Vermont South in providing us the plants.
The Year 12 cohort onsite planted a range of native trees and house plants during lunch break on 13 October at the Watsons Road entrance to the college. Thank you to all the students involved for leaving your legacy behind through this gesture. Brentwood wishes all our Year 12 the very best for their upcoming VCE exams.
Term Tree at Brentwood
This year’s World Environment Day’s theme is ‘Ecosystem Restoration’. Brentwood has joined the Generation Restoration and pledged to plant 2700 trees in Term 3 along the Scotchmans Creek and in the Mornington Peninsula. We are partnering with the 'Friends of Scotchmans Creek & Valley Reserve' and 15 Trees to implement this initiative. The following poster created by Anais (Year 7) was posted to our house teams.
Tree planting is going to offset nearly 73 tons of our greenhouse gas emissions.
Scotchmans Creek Tree Planting
Term Tree kicked off to a wonderful start today (13 July 2021). With guidance from the Friends of Scotchmans Creek & Valley Reserve (FOSCVR) and the City of Monash, the Brentwood Green Team planted over 1400 natives along the Scotchmans Creek.
The natives will prevent the erosion of the banks of the creek and provide habitat for the fauna along the creek.
Project Brentwoods
Each year Brentwood plants nearly 60 trees to mark National Tree Day. Over its lifetime, an average tree captures 268kg of carbon.
According to Sustainability Victoria, the average Australian lifestyle produces 15,000kg of carbon per year. This means we need to plant 58 trees per year to bring our individual carbon production down to zero.
One small/medium car will emit about 4000kg of carbon a year into the atmosphere. Therefore, to capture the carbon your car emits and reduce your footprint, you need to annually plant 15 trees.
Brentwood emitted 540 tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2019. Approximately 2000 trees are required in order to offset our emissions. Since planting 2000 trees at Brentwood is impractical, it would be ideal to plant them offsite in regional Victoria.
Victorian based organisations such as 15 trees (https://15trees.com.au/) are involved in planting trees in various parts of Australia to improve vegetation and habitat for our natural fauna. Businesses willing to reduce their carbon footprint purchase trees through 15trees at an average price of $4.50 that includes the cost of the plant, planting and maintaining them.
The objectives of Project Brentwoods is to plant a minimum 500 trees in regional Victoria this year. 500 trees will be able to offset nearly 125 tons of our emissions and will replace some of the trees lost in the bushfires this year. The Green team mascot, Koalas will get their devastated habitats back due to reforestation.
The Green Team proposes a one-time involvement in off-site tree planting by partnering with organisations such as 15trees. We would like to sponsor planting 500 trees this year. Planting trees will compensate for the 16 acres of land that was burnt and a billion animals that lost their homes during the bushfires in 2019-20. Most importantly, Brentwood can be a role model and proudly share its commitment to become a sustainability leader with its community. Every four trees planted through this campaign is going to offset 1 ton of our emissions.
https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/735816
Update June 2021: The trybooking fundraiser has now closed. We raised the required funds for this project.
