School students are aiming for a Guinness World Record; a filmmaker is taking his DeLorean ‘back to the future’; and homeowners could have a gas learning how not to cook with gas.

These are some of the innovative schemes Canberrans have come up with to tackle climate change, and which the ACT Government will fund through its Community Zero Emissions Grants program.

“It is citizen action in absolute perfect form,” says Shane Rattenbury, ACT Minister for Water, Energy and Emissions Reduction.

The government will fund six projects totalling more than $155,000. The ACT Government will give $4,512 to Lyneham High School; $43,625 to the Conservation Council ACT Region; and $28,000 to the National Film Academy.

The Canberra Environment Centre will receive $49,612 for a climate resilience and adaptation toolbox; SEE Change $24,878 for a soil health initiative; and Pedal Power ACT $5,556 for a digital project.

Climate change can be “so big and so existential that at times people feel disempowered by it; they don’t know how to make a difference,” Mr Rattenbury said. But those grants mean the community “can be part of the solution”.

“Out in the community, there’s lots of people with great ideas, and they’re very passionate about tackling climate change, reducing the ACT’s emissions, and preparing the city for a hotter, drier future. But sometimes, they just don’t quite have the resources to bring that idea to bear.”

School students cycle for climate

Lyneham High School will enter the Guinness and Australian Books of Records for the most bikes ever ridden to a school. Eight hundred students (out of a population of 1,100-odd) will cycle in September, around the time of World Car-Free Day.

“I was trying to figure out what I could do at the school to help the environment and make our campus greener, and increase school spirit at the same time,” said school captain James Etherington.

He hopes riding to school will be ongoing, and that other schools might try to beat Lyneham’s record.

“That’s what this is intended for: for other schools to get involved, and for more people to start riding to school,” James said. “The challenge is set. We’ve got to set the bar for everyone else.”

James has also led the school’s sustainability initiative: putting compost bins into school and using them in the agriculture plot to manage compost. Currently, the school doesn’t have compost bins or even a good recycling system, so the agriculture unit buys its compost, he said.

“Climate change is a huge issue today,” James said. His English class recently agreed that global warming was their number one priority.

“Our initiative is very small, but I hope that what we can do can then spread to others, and they might take it on. Obviously, what one person can do, or one school can do, is minimal. But what many schools can do is great.”

Taking the pedal off gas

The Conservation Council will start a conversation with the Canberra community about phasing out gas in their homes, and switching to electric power.

The ACT has the second highest per capita consumption of gas in Australia, and 20 per cent of the ACT’s emissions come from gas, the Council’s executive director, Helen Oakey, said.

“We need to transition off that.”

Many people, however, believe they need gas to cook well, while some ethnic groups are used to cooking with gas, she said.

“Electric cooktops can cook as effectively and efficiently as gas these days, and are starting to be used by chefs around the world,” Ms Oakey said. “We’re going to take cooktops out to the community, give them an opportunity to see how effective they are, and how precise they are as a technology, and try to break down that barrier for people who might want to electrify their homes and get off the gas grid.”

Switching from gas to electricity makes homes more sustainable, and also saves money, Ms Oakey said. “You don’t pay for that connection every year to the gas network. That’s an additional cost, and as gas prices go up, people will be insulated from that if they move over to electricity.”

The easiest and most cost-saving transition, Ms Oakey recommends, is to switch heating from ducted gas heating to reverse cycle air-conditioning, which can be used for cooling in summer – and is the only heating technology where people gain efficiency through the technology. (For one unit in, you can get three or four units of heating out.) Then put an electric heat pump in for hot water, and switch the cooktop to an induction unit.

Some of these devices and rebates are available through the ACT Government’s Sustainable Household Scheme.

“Taking it Back to the Future“

Doc Brown turned his DeLorean into a time machine; local film-maker Ché Baker is converting his into an electric vehicle – and making a film about it.

 “We are taking it Back to the Future,” he said. “We don’t have a Mr. Fusion [home energy reactor], but we want to do the next best thing!

“Seven years ago, a friend moved to Los Angeles to become a famous movie director, and left his beloved DeLorean with me. So I used and abused that in all the films we could locally. However, it kept breaking down in very inconvenient and embarrassing places!

“With the rise of electric vehicles, I realised there was a fantastic opportunity to look at the process of converting internal combustion engine vehicles to an electric vehicle, rather than just buying new EVs.”

The documentary, Electric Dreams, will cover the electrification of transport, from scooters to Onewheels to wakeboards and Bluetooth skateboards (hoverboards, too?), and the transition in the ACT. The conversion of the DeLorean is a hook; the documentary will show how people can convert their own older cars to EVs, and what new vehicles are on the market.

Palace Cinemas, Dendy, and the ANU Film Group are all committed to showing the documentary and releasing it online. Mr Baker is also pitching the documentary to National Geographic and SBS.