Five-Star ResourceSmart School
Brentwood has been certified as a five-star ResourceSmart School since 2021. Brentwood has saved over $1,560,000 during the past ten years by improving resource usage and sustainability practices at the college.
In 2025 we refreshed our Bioiversity and Water Modules to keep our 5-star certification.
Biodiversity Module Certificate
Water Module Certificate
Core Module Certificate
Energy Module Certificate
Waste Module Certificate
RSS 5-star Certification 2025
During the year of 2025 the Brentwood Green Team was required to refresh the Biodiversity and Water Modules to keep the 5-star Rating from ResourceSmart School up to date. We had a day of school where members of the Green Team walked around Brentwood and measured our water usage and variety of biodivesity on the Brentwood school grounds. We were awarded our 5-star certificate by Mayor Paul Klisaris from the City of Monash, Chris and April from Sustainable Monash, and Ashlee Lambton from Resource Smart Schools.
RSS Awards 2022
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 2022
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.
RSS Awards 2020
Brentwood Secondary College has been proudly following Sustainability Victoria’s ResourceSmart Schools program for nearly 10 years! This program intends to embed sustainability in schools by completing five modules to reach their sustainability goals.
Brentwood Green Team has been one of the finalists at the ResourceSmart Schools awards this year under the ‘Student action team of the year’ category. We were fortunate enough to receive a special memento and certificate from Sustainability Victoria recently, in recognition of our efforts and being nominated as finalists.
Watch the virtual awards ceremony here: 2020 Awards Ceremony - ResourceSmart Schools Awards
RSS Progress Workshop 2023
The Term 3 ResourceSmart Schools progress workshop was hosted by Brentwood on 7 September 2023. 25 staff from various schools attended the workshop to learn from our sustainability practices and worked on their RSS modules. The Green Team captains, Chinmayi and Anais showcased some of our initiatives to the visitors and took them on a college tour.
RSS Progress Workshop 2019
The ResourceSmart Schools Progress workshop for Term 4 2019 was held at Brentwood on 13 November. 40 teachers from various schools in the Eastern region attended the workshop and worked on different modules of the RSS program.
The Brentwood Green Team shared our progress and achievements in sustainability with the participants before taking them on a tour of the college.
Brentwood is a three-star ResourceSmart School.
RSS Awards 2019
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.
Waste Secondary School of the Year 2017 - Finalist
Brentwood got nominated second year in a row at the annual ResourceSmart Schools awards. This year Brentwood was shorlisted as one of the finalists for the 'Waste Secondary School of the Year'.
Brentwood continued to expand its waste streams by introducing commingled recycling bins in all staffrooms and 'Smart Cara' an electric composter in the Food Tech lab and
The event was hosted by ABC TV's Gardening Australia presenter, Costa Georgiadis. The event was held at the IMAX Melbourne.
Energy Secondary School of the Year 2016 - Winner
Brentwood was awarded the 'Energy Secondary School of the 2016' at the annual ResourceSmart Schools awards, hosted by TV celbrities Natalie Hunter and Josh Earl and held at the IMAX Melbourne.
Brentwood won this award for their significant reduction in electricity usage during the year, due to the installation of the 29 kW solar PV system and behaviour changes to conserve electricity usage at the college.
The Brentwood Green Team was thrilled to see their nomination pop-up on the second biggest screen in the world (IMAX Melbourne) and the receove the award from the Victorian Minister of Environment, the Hon. Lily D'Ambrosio.
