Electric Living – Building Canada’s Trusted Pathway to Home Electrification

Chris Taggart helped establish Electrify 613, an Ottawa-based initiative helping homeowners navigate the transition to electric homes through peer-to-peer learning and community support. Through an active online discussion group and local engagement, Chris has built a trusted space where homeowners and experts share real-world experiences, advice, and practical guidance on home electrification. His work demonstrates the power of community-led approaches to move people from curiosity to action and highlights the role of local networks in accelerating adoption.

Sarah is an innovative strategist, leader, creative communicator, and original marketer with deep community engagement bonafides. A builder of ideas and organizations and experiences—she creates through the lens of human behavior, talks about heat pumps a little too much, and is a fan of large cookies. Sarah is currently working with the Building Decarbonization Alliance to help launch Electric Living. She worked for fifteen years as a journalist, illustrator, freelance animator/filmmaker. Wrote, designed, and strategized for clients including David Suzuki Foundation, Maclean’s, Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, National Post, Shaw Media, The Boston Globe, Slack, The Walrus, and others. She also made movies for the National Film Board of Canada, directed a feature, launched Torontoist.com and The Hour with George Strombolopoulos, wrote a book on consumerism, designed the first kids brand for the Toronto Public Library, taught at Humber College, and ate a lot of cookies.

Heather McDiarmid is the founder of McDiarmid Climate Consulting, which specializes in research, analysis and communications work related to decarbonizing the residential sector.  Recent work includes modeling the cost effectiveness of heat pumps in Ontario and the impact of widespread heat pump adoption on the Ontario grid. She has also developed climate-related course materials for educational and corporate institutions including the International Civil Aviation Organization and holds a Research Associate position at the University of Waterloo. When not working to build a climate-safe future, she enjoys hanging out with her family, biking, kayaking, and playing the oboe.