They can all benefit by making the switch from gas to induction cooking!
Since 2020 the Conservation Council’s Make the Switch project, funded by two ACT Government Community Zero Emissions Grants, has been helping Canberra households replace fossil gas appliances to reduce climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions.
As of mid-November, we will have wrapped up our second grant project which comprised new videos, website updates and public engagement.
The 2023 update of the Make the Switch website includes three new videos produced with our amazing partner Crux Media and a host of wonderful contributors:
- Cooking all your favourite meals on induction technology, demonstrated by award-winning Chef Sanjay Kumar from Gravitas Catering (previously Daana Indian Restaurant in Curtin);
- The health impacts of gas in homes, with advice from respected Canberra cardiologist Dr Arnagretta Hunter; and
- Electrification tips for renters, beautifully articulated by Lyndsay Bassett from the ACT Council of Social Service, herself a renter.
They are scattered through the website into their relevant sections, or you can binge-watch them all on the Videos page accessed through the footer menu, or on our Make the Switch YouTube playlist.
The Make the Switch website now features an entirely new page of advice and resources for landlords, renters and apartment residents. Through our public engagement over the past few years, we talked with a lot of tenants and apartment residents who would like to get off gas but feel a bit powerless to make the switch, so we scoured the electrification network and wrote this page for you. The key tool is a downloadable, editable letter that renters can send to their landlord, outlining the opportunity that electrification presents and how to go about it.
The Calculator is still a fantastic tool to estimate the costs and savings of switching from gas appliances, and the assumptions behind the form have been updated for changing energy prices by expert contributor Ben Elliston.
We have added a few new questions and answers to the Myth-busting section in response to public engagement, including answering the frequent query about pacemakers and induction technology, plus the Suburb Zero Electrify Canberra campaign. There are also minor updates for ACT policies and programs. Do you have a question that isn’t answered? Let us know and we’ll try to answer it for you.
Our public engagement in 2023 has been a blast! Led by Community Engagement Officer Ellora Siva, our team of brilliant young women has conducted 20 stalls across markets, festivals and shopping centres, plus 5 presentations for community groups, holding conversations with over 1200 people from the Canberra region and beyond, helping to move households along the electrification pathway. We give a huge shoutout to Ellora, Rasika, Olivia, Emily and Grace for all their hard work and early mornings!
Of course, a project like this relies on the generosity of a host of contributors so we thank everyone who was involved, including Sarah Boddington, ANU, who is studying the project to inform future work by the climate community, Jenny Edwards, Jill Harding, the Jowers Blain family, Gabby, Emma, Rob Clode, .
Please share the Make the Switch website far and wide so that we can together accelerate the end of fossil gas and take this meaningful action to tackle the climate crisis.
