Brentwood Climate Action

Category: Schools

All set for Strawberry Fair stall on June 18

Plans for a Brentwood Climate Action stall at next month’s Strawberry Fair on Shenfield Common were among the many issues discussed at the latest BCA Members Meeting on May 17.

Held as usual at the Chicken & Frog bookshop in Crown Street, and hybrid online via Zoom, the meeting agreed that a presence at the June 18 event would help raise awareness of Brentwood Climate Action with the public, and hopefully see many more people sign up as members on the day.

We are aiming to run a scavenger hunt on the day to encourage participation from families with children. And attending members will be encouraged to help out with some litter-picking on the Common, wearing our BCA-branded Hi Vis jackets.

Anyone wanting to attend and help out on the day from 11am onwards – please email us at info@brentwoodclimateaction.org.uk so we have an idea of numbers in advance.

A donation from National Enforcement Solutions, who supplied BCA’s litter-picking equipment, will cover the cost of the stall at the Fair.

Also discussed at the meeting was the Schools Climate Change Conference Programme, with the date for the second conference now having been set for June 29. A group of students and a member of staff from St. Martin’s School are working on the programme with the help of Richard Millwood from the BCA steering group.

And the meeting attendees agreed that donations to Brentwood Climate Action should be the preferred method of gaining financial support for the group rather than a membership fee. BCA now has a bank account where donations can be made:

Bank details:
Account – 67235957
Code – 08-92-99
Brentwood Climate Action

The date of the next meeting was agreed as Thursday July 14 (7.30pm) at Chicken & Frog and via Zoom. Members meetings will continue to be every two months, with the convenors of the BCA WhatsApp Action Groups forming the Steering Group along with the appointed officers, and holding meetings monthly.

Georgia Earing has joined the Steering Group now after volunteering to head up the Engagement Group moving forward.

The full meeting minutes and from all previous BCA meetings can be downloaded in our Resources section.

28 May 2022
Top ten Brentwood Climate Action achievements of 2021
As we head into what we hope will be a landmark year for Climate Action in Brentwood, let’s take a minute to look back on the major achievements of Brentwood Climate Action since our group was formed in late summer of 2021.

In no particular order, here’s our Top Ten of Actions taken so far:
1. We held our first Schools Conference at Anglo European School in Ingatestone in November, as part of our Action around the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow – with more than 50 sixth formers from four schools across the Borough attending and taking part in educational activities related to COP26 and the Climate Emergency generally.
1. We had a successful presence on both Brentwood and Ingatestone high streets to mark the COP26 Global Day of Action. Brentwood Climate Action members spent the day talking to members of the public to raise awareness of COP26 and the Climate Emergency, and promote the ongoing work of our group and how it can make a difference locally.
1. We’ve been making contact with Brentwood Borough Council officials and administration Councillors – who have indicated a willingness to engage with us around climate and environmental issues on an ongoing basis – and also asked questions at Brentwood Borough Council meetings; as part of our lobbying process moving forward in 2022.
1. We held our kickstart meeting back in the summer, as more than 40 people took part in the first meeting held at Chicken and Frog bookshop in Crown Street, and online via Zoom, on Thursday August 12. The meeting elected a Steering Group, agreed a constitution, as well as a vision and aims for Brentwood Climate Action.
1. The number of activists / members of Brentwood Climate Action has climbed well over 100 in just four months. You can sign up here.
1. Despite the ongoing issues with the Covid pandemic, we’ve managed to hold four monthly members meetings, at a variety of venues across the Borough and hybrid online via Zoom. The guest speaker at our November meeting was Ottilie West, the new Climate and Sustainability Officer at Brentwood Borough Council.
1. As part of the ongoing administration carried out by your volunteer Steering Group, we’ve set up a bank account and started to look at potential funding sources to enable us to operate effectively in 2022 and beyond.
1. We set up this website and social media channels on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram from scratch – which have seen us gather hundreds of followers in quick time. And we’ve also set up a Membership database and been sending out regular emailings to our signed up activists.
1. We launched a Petition calling on Brentwood Council to declare a Climate Emergency, and publish an ambitious Climate Action Plan – which has had more than 100 signatures online, and more than double that offline at our COP26 Global Day of Action stalls.
1. We conducted a members skills audit, which allowed us to set up seven diverse Action Groups – such as Lobbying, Environmental, Funding, Wellbeing, and Education – which we hope will provide the focus for a lot of what will do during this year.
5 January 2022
Schools Conference a great success

More than 50 sixth formers from four schools across the Borough attended Brentwood Climate Action’s first Schools Conference, held at Anglo European School in Ingatestone last week.

In addition to pupils from the host venue, students and their supervising staff came from Brentwood County High School, St Martin’s School, and Brentwood Ursuline Convent High School. The November 11 event saw them all taking part in educational activities related to the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, and the Climate Emergency generally.

Everyone was in agreement that the afternoon was a huge success, with the Conference a great opportunity for students to discuss the growing need to combat climate change, and its various effects on societal well-being.

“There was a lot of energy in the room, a lot of dialogue with the speakers, and great enthusiasm to do it again in summer 2022 – with St Martin’s School volunteering to host,” said Brentwood Climate Action’s Richard Millwood.

The main focus of the event was three presentations by key-note speakers via Zoom – Matt Webster, Head of Environment and Sustainability for British Land; Patrick McDowell, fashion designer; and Andrea Zara, DJ at KISS FM – plus Councillor Gareth Barrett of Brentwood Borough Council in person. These were interspersed with round-table discussions among the students, brainstorms and workshops.

Matt Webster kicked off with a talk on ‘Buildings’ effect on climate’; followed by Patrick speaking on ‘Climate conscious fashion’. The third presentation from Andrea was on ‘Reducing individual impact on the climate’; and then Cllr Barrett talked to the room about ‘Recycling in the UK: challenges and opportunities for food and drink.’

The event was coordinated in association with Ingatestone & Fryerning Parish Council, with Parish Cllr Marilyn Marston saying: “The enthusiasm and interaction within the hall seemed to stimulate great ideas for future projects.”

Textile students from Anglo European that also attended are going to work with Cllr Marston, collecting scraps of material and wool from people’s homes to turn into fashion items.

Students were invited to brainstorm project ideas for future climate action and get together in action groups to discuss in more detail. As the Conference drew to a close, each action group was invited to explain what they are committed to achieve and then report back on at the follow-up Conference in the summer of 2022.

In this way Brentwood Climate Action is looking to get students to commit to inter-school collaborative action over the coming months, and take back what they have learned to their schools, fellow pupils and their community.

15 November 2021
All set for Schools Conference
Brentwood Climate Action’s first Schools Conference takes place this coming Thursday, November 11, at the Anglo European School in Ingatestone.

The aim of the Conference (1-4.30pm) is to bring together sixth form students from across the Brentwood Borough to take part in educational activities related to the current COP26 climate summit being held in Glasgow.

Brentwood Climate Action believe this Conference will be a great opportunity for students to discuss the growing concern about the need to combat climate change, and its various effects on societal well-being.

It’s hoped the students will be able to take back what they have learned to their schools, along with ideas for tackling climate change and other environmental issues. We also hope the Conference will provide them with the necessary tools to empower their fellow students, and to share their knowledge with the wider community.

The outline Conference agenda aims to educate the attending sixth formers about the climate challenge we face in general, and in three specific areas:
- Buildings’ effect on climate
- Climate conscious fashion
- Reducing individual impact on the climate
Presentations by three key-note speakers – Matt Webster, Head of Environment and Sustainability for British Land; Patrick McDowell, fashion designer; Andrea Zara, DJ – will be interspersed with round-table discussions among the students, brainstorms and workshops.

Students will be invited to identify climate actions they want to take, and get together in action groups – which would then report back at a planned follow-up Conference in the summer of 2022.

In this way we are looking to get students to commit to inter-school collaborative action over the coming months.

And we are aiming to provide more of these sessions in the future to allow the students of Brentwood to share their ideas, along with the successes of working with the school, the wider community and with each other.

Paul Jeater, Chair of Ingatestone & Fryerning Parish Council and a member of Brentwood Climate Action, will introduce the Conference, outlining its aims, objectives and the agenda.
9 November 2021
Join us in Ingatestone or online

A reminder that our monthly Members’ meeting for October takes place on Tuesday 19th – in-person in Ingatestone as well as hybrid via Zoom.

The venue this month is the Seymour Pavilion at Seymour Field in Ingatestone, starting at 7.30pm – and will be a joint meeting with Ingatestone & Fryerning Parish Council Climate Emergency Working Group.

Anyone who wants to attend online, and hasn’t already received the Zoom link (which was sent out to Members today) please email us at info@brentwoodclimateaction.org.uk

The full address details for the venue are: Seymour Pavilion, New Road, Ingatestone CM4 0HH.

In the meantime, you can have a look at our October newsletter that was sent out to Members this week, on our Resources page

18 October 2021
October 19 meeting to focus on COP26 action

We’re pleased to confirm that the next Members monthly meeting has been confirmed for Tuesday October 19 – and will take place at the Seymour Pavilion at Seymour Field in Ingatestone, starting at 7.30pm.

Also hybrid online via Zoom for those unable to attend in person on the night, it will be a joint meeting with Ingatestone & Fryerning Parish Council Climate Emergency Working Group. Sign-up details will follow in due course.

The major items on the agenda are likely to revolve around Brentwood Climate Action activity during COP26 – the United Nations climate conference, which is being hosted by the UK in Scotland from October 31 – November 12.

COP stands for Conference of the Parties, and this 26th summit will be attended by the countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change back in 1994.

There’s a great opportunity for the climate movement to come together around COP26, demand justice for those most affected by the crisis and hold leaders at all levels to account – both on a global scale, but relating it to a local level here in the Brentwood area too.

The key date potentially for us is Saturday November 6 on the middle weekend of the COP, where there is a designated Global Day of Action. And the latest Brentwood Climate Action steering group meeting on Wednesday October 6 discussed what we might do on that day to raise awareness of the issues involved, and of our group at the same time.

The main aim of that Day of Action is to unite climate activists and groups around a common goal: demanding governments and corporations limit global temperatures to 1.5°C and deliver real and just solutions to the climate crisis – in line with the Paris Climate Agreement from 2015.

So we are determined to have a presence on the day, allowing us to provide information to the public about COP26, the climate emergency, how it affects us locally, and raise awareness of what we are up to in Brentwood Climate Action.

Also during the second week of COP26 we are proposing to run a Sixth Form Conference on Thursday November 11 at the Anglo European School in Ingatestone. Full details of this are still being discussed, but it will be open to sixth formers from all of the Borough’s secondary schools, feature several speakers, and a host activities for attending pupils to undertake – as a start of an ongoing commitment to cross-school collaboration and to climate action locally.

Both this and the COP26 Global Day of Action presence will no doubt require a lot of input and effort from Brentwood Climate Action members to facilitate and run on the day, and so this will form the focus of our discussion at the October 19 meeting.

We’ll provide further updates and calls for Member involvement as required during the coming weeks!

As a date further ahead for your diary, the November meeting of Brentwood Climate Action members has been scheduled for Tuesday 23, also starting at 7.30pm. The venue will be confirmed in due course.

7 October 2021
Action Group progress at September meeting
It was great to see so many Members in-person at Shenfield High School for our September 16 meeting – with as many others joining in via Zoom as well.

The technical challenges of running a hybrid meeting may have proved testing at times, but we persevered and covered lots of ground.

That included looking ahead to potential activities on the Global Day of Action during COP26 in November, which is something we will return to, to formalise plans.

And we also had some thought-provoking break-out sessions across the newly set up Action Groups to start those moving forward.

For those that are unaware, we have to date set up seven of these, on the following Action areas:
- Addressing wellbeing
- Developing community energy and providing for electric vehicles
- Engaging with public and partnering with business
- Fundraising
- Lobbying
- Working with schools and monitoring climate change
- Nature & environmental action and recycling
There was lots of progress, in groups run in the room and mirrored via WhatsApp and Zoom. The groups will now continue to discuss potential Actions, and bring back their updates to the next Members meeting.

If all of this sounds interesting to you, please do get in touch – and get involved!

We’ll be holding our next full meeting of Brentwood Climate Action members on Tuesday October 19.

That is set to take place at the Seymour Pavilion at Seymour Field in Ingatestone – also hybrid online via Zoom – and be a joint meeting with Ingatestone & Fryerning Parish Council Climate Emergency Working Group.

Full details and sign-up information will be published soon.
17 September 2021
September 16 meeting at Shenfield High School

Please join us tomorrow night for our Members launch meeting – in-person at Shenfield High School from 7pm, or online via Zoom if you prefer. If everyone could complete our attendance form to let us know how you wish to take part that will help us prepare, and will make sure you get the Zoom link emailed to you in advance of the start, if that’s your chosen method: https://actionnetwork.org/events/brentwood-climate-action-launch We have a lot of Action ideas to discuss, and a lot to update you all on since our kickstart meeting last month. We will also discuss Great Big Green Week and COP26 as Action opportunities. Everyone is welcome! Please share the date/time/venue far and wide to those that you know will be interested. Shenfield High School is at: Alexander Lane, Shenfield, Brentwood CM15 8RY.

15 September 2021