BEAT 2018

The Brentwood Environmental Action Team’s motivation for this year’s theme, Actions on Agenda 2030, was put in place by the desire by the United Nations to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. A vision in this action plan by the United Nations “aims to end poverty, promote prosperity and people’s well-being while protecting the environment by 2030”. Over the course of the year, all of the actions of the BEAT and our school community have been directed at educating and taking action on these 17 goals. Whether it be through bulletin board displays, monthly meetings, announcements in the boarding houses, students speaking at assemblies, or lessons in the 21st Century Studies classes, the goal was to bring awareness and take action on these goals.  Students were successful in raising awareness about hunger by making soup for a school in the local community or investigating salmon conservation by volunteering with a local effort to capture and transfer salmon to waters upstream in our local area. Many of The BEAT’s other actions included 5 minute cleanups or educating our community about effective waste streaming; we reduced our overall trash consumption by 75% and our compost by 15% during our waste reduction campaign. The BEAT hopes that with this year’s theme, Actions on Agenda 2030, we have increased awareness about these issues and encouraged global stewardship as well as acknowledging to our school family that small actions within a community will make a difference. Ms Laura Richardson, BEAT Co-ordinator