Chattanooga Green Initiatives

Chattanooga’s Green Initiatives Continue to Get National Attention and Land Volkswagen’s North American Plant

“We agree this is America at its best. Environmental sustainability is a core value at Volkswagen, and Chattanooga has moved to make environmental awareness part of the city’s fabric.” – Stefan Jacoby, President and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.

As the revitalization plan unfolded over the past two decades, Chattanoogans made environmentally conscious choices at every opportunity. They wanted to integrate the city with urban parks, trails and outdoor amenities.

They established green spaces throughout the community and developed a master plan to create a continuous greenway system that would preserve natural spaces while providing recreation and alternative transportation links throughout the community. To date, the community has established 25 miles of walking paths including a 13-mile river walk that extends from downtown Chattanooga to the Chickamauga Dam.

In building the Tennessee Aquarium, the largest freshwater aquarium in the world, Chattanoogans ensured that environmental conservation was part of the mission of the scientists and experts employed there. As they addressed the need for downtown mass transit, Chattanoogans launched a free electric bus service. In transforming the city’s downtown waterfront, Chattanoogans realized a shared public vision that included green spaces on both side of the river, a wetlands preservation area, and pedestrian connections.

In 2005, Chattanooga established an Early Action Compact with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as part of the city’s continuing effort to proactively combat air pollution. Officials instituted vehicle emissions inspections, a ban on open burning, and other measures to ensure continued attainment. In 2008, the EPA officially recognized the Chattanooga area’s attainment status under the latest guidelines, and the trend line for air quality keeps getting better and better.

Chattanooga's Green Initiatives

• Chattanooga Convention Center – Named a Top 10 eco-friendly convention center by Successful Meetings Magazine, the Chattanooga Convention Center is designed to take advantage of natural light and features individual temperature controls for each exhibit space. They also recycle all paper, glass and plastic and recently began recycling corrugated material which is averaging approximately 1,500 pounds per week. Beginning in January 2008, they began donating non-consumed food to the Chattanooga Food Bank’s Second Helpings program. In this program’s first three weeks, they donated 401 pounds of prepared food.
• Green|spaces – Green|spaces is an initiative to educate and encourage developers, builders and homeowners to make building less wasteful and more environmentally friendly with the latest environmentally-friendly materials and methods. Green|spaces goal is to get at least 20 LEED-certified buildings downtown by 2011 (includes renovations and new construction). Green|spaces will also provide funding to help commercial builders construct sustainable buildings.
• Take Root – This new city program intends to double our tree canopy in the expanded central business district and strives to inspire Chattanooga to do its part to help stop climate change. By planting 1,500 trees on the major arteries of the city, we can reduce our carbon footprint. Donations are being taken for the trees and come in a variety of levels.
• Urban Forester – The City keeps an Urban Forester on staff to oversee green initiatives, grant applications and programs and serve as an information source/resource to the public and tree professionals.
• Green Committee – This includes representatives from city government, the business sector and education and is split into four groups – education and policy, natural resources, healthy communities and energy efficiency. They will research the different areas and come up with ways to reduce carbon emissions. Their goal encompasses an array of concepts, from smart growth to conservation to open spaces and making Chattanooga more environmentally friendly and sustainable overall.

City of Chattanooga's Accomplishments

• Electric shuttle buses in the downtown (Southside to North Shore, about 20 blocks)
• 12 Hybrid vehicles in the City fleet
• 350+ Flex-fuel vehicles for all diesel burning engines
• 0% bio-diesel for all diesel burning engines
• TDEC Grant for the purchase of two 12,000-gallon tanks for E-85
• 105 school buses retrofitted with diesel oxidation catalysts for Hamilton County school buses (First Student, Inc.)
• The Development Resource Center
• Green Roofs in Renaissance Park
• Vehicle Emissions Testing program
• Carbon Sequestration by Urban Forests
• Shading the downtown area to reduce the urban heat island effect
• 15% Tree Canopy in downtown C-3 and C-7 zones and the new “Take Root” initiative
• Anti-idling policy for City vehicles
• Methane collection at the landfills
• City wide replacement of incandescent bulbs (red, green, and turn signals) in all traffic signals
• Purchased a $15 million filter press – that converts solid waste from the waste treatment plant into Class B fertilizer for farmers