Brentwood Climate Action

Category: Sustainability

Our plans for Great Big Green Week need your help
Brentwood Climate Action is planning to fully embrace this year’s Great Big Green Week in the autumn – with an outline of events we could run agreed at this week’s BCA Steering Group meeting.

For those that don’t know, the Great Big Green Week is the UK’s biggest ever celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect nature. Between September 24 and October 2 this year, Great Big Green Week will unleash a wave of support for action to protect the planet. Tens of thousands of people in every corner of the country will celebrate the heartfelt, brave, everyday actions being taken to stand up for nature and fight climate change.

Together we can show decision makers that people from all walks of life are stepping up to take action on climate change – and we need them to step up too. Last year over 5000 events took place, with more than 200,000 people showing up for the planet in their community and online.

So it is definitely something that Brentwood should be participating in. And we need your help – Brentwood Climate Action members, and anyone interested in solutions to the Climate Emergency and nature crisis we face in this country and around the world – to make it happen.

Ideas currently being worked on are:
- Holding a Climate Cafe in the Brentwood Borough area – potentially in Ingatestone, and maybe elsewhere if we can find suitable venues. If you’re not familiar with the concept, a Climate Cafe is a space for people to get together to talk and act on climate change and related issues. Climate Cafes are informal, inclusive spaces where everyone is welcome to join the conversation and get involved
- Litter Pick – building on successful BCA ones held previously in the spring and at the Strawberry Fair… for as many people in the local community to come and join us as possible and take very simple but effective environmental action
- Green Book Club – hopefully we can stage an event at a local bookshop, giving attendees the chance to get together to talk about, and buy, the latest and best books on climate change, the environment, and the natural world
- A climate change Board Games event – with a variety of environment-themed games available for all to play, giving us a fundraising opportunity and a chance for BCA members to come together for an enjoyable social gathering
- Creating information leaflets on key climate, green energy and nature issues that would be available at our events during Great Big Green Week and thereafter
We’d like to stage these events during the week, and maybe more, but we can’t without more volunteers coming forward to help organise them and run them on the agreed dates.

So please get in touch with us at info@brentwoodclimateaction.org.uk

Or via our Contacts page, or our social media channels – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram – to let us know how you’d like to get involved before and during Great Big Green Week.

The sooner we can confirm all our plans and dates/venues the sooner we can publicise all the events – and get as many people joining in with Great Big Green Week across the Borough as possible.
10 August 2022
Join our Litter Pick events on Saturday April 9
Come and join members of Brentwood Climate Action as we take part in two Litter Pick events in town on Saturday April 9 – as part of Keep Britain Tidy’s Great British Spring Clean campaign.

Our latest members meeting at Chicken and Frog bookshop and also via Zoom on Thursday (March 24) agreed the time and dates for the events.

We will be holding two on the same day – and hope to see a mass turnout at the Courage Playing Fields in Shenfield (11am-12pm), and King George’s Playing Fields (3.30-4.30pm). We have Brentwood Climate Action hi-vis vests and litter pickers for attendees to use! But you may want to bring some gloves.

We hope to see you there. And we’ve produced a poster you can download, print and display to encourage others to come along too.
- Download the Brentwood Climate Action litter pick poster
The meeting was our first of 2022 and covered a wide range of topics.

Members were again encouraged to sign up to at least one of our Action Groups via WhatsApp, links to which were circulated with the meeting invitation. If you’re not sure how to do that, or want to find out more about the Action Groups and how you could get involved, then please email us at info@brentwoodclimateaction.org.uk.

These are our forums for taking projects and ideas forward. The various Group Co-ordinators are also on our Steering Group, and will be invited to feed back progress at future bi-monthly meetings.

There were reports on the night from the Education Group – including outline plans for our second Schools Climate Change Conference at St Martin’s School in late June – the Finance Group, and the Lobbying Group.

It was agreed that we would continue to meet in a hybrid format with our base as the Chicken & Frog bookshop in Crown Street, and also using Zoom. The members meeting will be every two months.

Next Meetings:
- Tuesday 17 May, 7.30pm
- Thursday 14 July, 7.30pm
Download a copy the minutes:

Members Meeting minutes – March 24 2022
26 March 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
Council pledges Sustainability Strategy publication in 2022

Brentwood Climate Action was pleased to hear recent pledges from Brentwood Borough Council Leader, Cllr Chris Hossack, that the planned Sustainability Strategy will be published in 2022 and include carbon reduction targets and objectives for the authority.

Cllr Hossack was responding to questions from BCA chair Susan Kortlandt at last week’s Ordinary Meeting of the Council, where she asked:

1. What is the total carbon footprint of Brentwood Council from all its current operations, including housing, offices and works?

2. I note that the Council is preparing an Environmental Strategy aimed at taking the ‘Council and the Borough’ towards Zero Carbon 2040. How will you ensure that progress is being made? Will there be intermediate targets, scrutiny and control measures? By when do you intend the Council’s own operations to be carbon neutral?

In reply to the first question, Cllr Hossack said: “It’s not an insignificant task to baseline the carbon footprint of all of our operations – probably as an organisation, as an employer in Brentwood, the largest task of any organisation in Brentwood actually.

“Our newly appointed Climate and Sustainability Officer is undertaking this baselining exercise. We’re bringing together the information on the carbon footprint, and it will form part of the baseline that our performance will be measured against moving forward.”

Liberal Democrat opposition Leader, Cllr Barry Aspinell, added: “I welcome the question and I hope whatever detail we get back includes our Council housing, which is considerable, and every other detail; and I look forward to it when it comes to us.”

And Labour Leader, Cllr Gareth Barrett, pointed to previous work done by other local authorities: “I think Cllr Hossack is right, it is a big piece of work, but there are several London Boroughs and Councils in the east of England that have already done this equation, with summaries we’ll be able to work from. There is a carbon workbook for local authorities that again we can work from.

“It’s also not necessarily our emissions day to day, but how much carbon when we’re building new things – the laying of concrete is one of the most carbon intensive things you can do. As a Council we have to think how we can net off or produce alternatives to reduce those emissions as we develop.”

Cllr Hossack confirmed that Brentwood residents could look forward to the Sustainability Strategy in 2022 in his answer to the second question, explaining: “The strategy that’s being created will be published next year and will identify where we want to be as an authority, and by when. The strategy will lead to clear targets and objectives identifying appropriate areas of work the Council should concentrate on that will create most reward in this sector.

“In doing so, measures will be put into place with the mechanism to record and publish achievements against the targets. The Strategy will also seek to identify when the Council will become carbon neutral and the measures and steps the Council will need to take to achieve that objective.

“The Council has set an overall aim to be carbon neutral by 2040. Once a baseline has been established a more specific target can be set.”

Cllr Aspinell pointed to the need to consider ongoing housing development, saying: “We should also be looking at our Local Development Plan and, where it is possible, adding in to that that no building should be built unless they are carbon neutral on any of the sites that this Council has identified for building.”

Cllr Barrett suggested that any such climate action plan would require highly visible monitoring: “Scrutiny-wise, this needs to become a key scheme of work for the Audit and Scrutiny Committee. If progress is to be made it needs to be made sure that it isn’t a greenwashing exercise.

“In terms of intermediate targets, when we look at other large-scale organisations when they start their carbon programme, we have a net zero target the Council has set of 2040 – I still think it can be more ambitious and a 2030 target is more than viable – but to the same extent what most large organisations find is that the first 50 per cent is the low hanging fruit that can be achieved rather rapidly. The first five-year ambition is the important one; and then it gets progressively harder unfortunately, but if we set a big ambition to hit early on then I think that’s a viable and sensible plan to have.

“And that level of ambition also sets a mark in the sand that we can be marked against rather than a long-term 2040 target which we’re reliant on new technologies to appear. Actually what we can do now can probably get us half way – let’s set that ambition, and let’s make it.”

Brentwood Climate Action members will be bringing forward suggestions for inclusion in the Council’s climate action plan, and actively engaging in all available avenues for consultation – as well as continuing to press for the Council to recognise the seriousness of the situation and declare a climate emergency.

You can watch the full recording of the Council meeting – with this relevant Q&A section starting from 30:00.

14 December 2021
Questions asked of Brentwood Council

Brentwood Climate Action chair, Susan Kortlandt, is asking two questions of Brentwood Borough Council at their full Council Meeting tomorrow evening

1. What is the total carbon footprint of Brentwood Council from all its current operations, including housing, offices and works?

2. I note that the Council is preparing an Environmental Strategy aimed at taking the “Council and the Borough” towards Zero Carbon 2040”. How will you ensure that progress is being made? Will there be intermediate targets, scrutiny and control measures? By when do you intend the Council’s own operations to be carbon neutral?

You can see the questions on the Council’s website at:

https://brentwood.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s21511/Public%20Questions%20report%20-%208.12.2021.pdf

And you can see the full Agenda for the meeting, and also follow the Live Broadcast, at:

https://brentwood.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=128&MID=2249#AI9189

We’ll update with how the Council responded after the meeting.

7 December 2021
Council’s Ottilie West presents to November meeting
The guest speaker at our November monthly members meeting was Ottilie West, the new Climate and Sustainability Officer at Brentwood Borough Council.

Ottilie joined the hybrid meeting like others via Zoom, while there was also a packed meeting room for those attending the November 23 session in-person at Chicken and Frog bookshop in Brentwood.

Ottilie’s presentation (which you can download below) covered her priorities in her role at the Council – the main one of which is “Creating a Strategy to reduce the carbon footprint and improve the overall sustainability of Brentwood Borough”.

She outlined further detail on ‘The Sustainability Strategy’, which she explained is being created to “identify the actions required to meet the Council’s aim of becoming carbon neutral by 2040”.

She also covered BEBA, the new Brentwood Environmental Business Alliance, and ways in which Brentwood Climate Action might be able to work with the Council moving forward.

Download Ottilie’s presentation as either a PowerPoint or a PDF file below:
- Ottilie West presentation as PowerPoint
- Ottilie West presentation as PDF
The meeting – to which we also welcomed Council Leader, Cllr Chris Hossack, at the start via Zoom – also heard updates from all our seven Action groups. These included reports on the recent COP26 Global Day of Action activity in Brentwood and Ingatestone high streets which gathered hundreds of signatures for our petition, and the Schools Conference held at the Anglo European School.

There will be no monthly meeting at the end of December as we take a break during the Christmas period. The aim is to return on a monthly basis back at Chicken & Frog Bookshop (and also still by Zoom) from the latter half of January. A poll for meeting dates and times will be distributed to the membership to help us finalise a first date.
25 November 2021
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
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