As David Crockett, director of the Office of Sustainability/Chattanooga Green, describes the work his office does for the community, he draws a triangle in the air, punctuating each end with the words “economic,” “social” and “environmental,” the three ends of the triangle that the Chattanooga Green office works for and within.
Chattanooga Green works to make our town green, clean, safe, prosperous and fun with a strategy that is centered on the “Cradle to Cradle” system employed in nature, where nothing is wasted. Chattanooga signed on to the climate action plan to reduce the city’s carbon footprint and fulfill the plan internally, but also to change the way the city does business, says Dave Santucci, communications manager at the office of sustainability.
A main component of this is considering the lifecycle cost of items to determine their price over their entire life span use. A good example of this is electric cars, which may cost more up front, but when factoring in 200,000 miles on the life of the car, equaling 10,000 gallons of gas at approximately $4 a gallon will lead to $40,000 added to the cost of a typical vehicle. Factoring in this life cycle cost means saving money as well as aiding the environmental benefits of the electric car.
This ties directly into the climate action plan, which is a way essentially for the city to reduce energy and dollars spent, Crockett says. Chattanooga is making a step in this direction with electric cars by putting in place an electric grid of charging stations for the battery operated vehicles from here to Knoxville, Nashville and within the region.
These charging stations will be placed near coffee shops, malls and similar places so that when a vehicle needs a 30-minute charge, the owner won’t have to sit and stare at “the pump” but will be able to enjoy their surroundings. One of the first of these stations in the nation is located at the Doubletree Hotel.
Crockett says the office of sustainability is really an office of innovation and quality management. They display this by working on storm water solutions.
“Storm water will turn out to be a green infrastructure plan that could be the most important strategy for the city and the region,” Crockett says. “We will turn what is viewed as a problem that all cities across America are going through into something positive, with regulations and funds from the federal government.”
The spillage of raw sewage into the Tennessee River caused during storms is the issue. In the past, the problem has been staved off with pipes, holes in the ground, or expensive underground tanks. Now, other options such as porous pavement (where water goes through it and into the ground) and increasing the natural vegetation are being considered as a natural and much less expensive solution.
At Chattanooga Green, decisions are made by considering the “four E’s”: economy, environment, equity, and education. Considering sustainability also means that no financial, human or natural resources are wasted. It means not having to go back and pay for a decision three times, but rather making a good decision from the start, Crockett says.
“This kind of management means not doing something without thinking how it will affect the rest of the company or the rest of the city. That’s a total quality management system,” he says.
The programs that Chatta-nooga Green is putting in place now will make Chattanooga “as green as a gourd” in 20 years, and will allow citizens not to move or commute so far to get what they need in jobs and resources, Crockett says. Moving toward this goal, the office has built a partnership with Curitiba, Brazil, an international icon for sustainability, in order to attract major corporations like the six automakers that flocked to this town because of its sustainability reputation.
Chattanooga Green has also done a good job in bringing the tourism industry up to the 21st century, Crockett says, which is important because tourists come and leave money to benefit the city.
“We’ve not tried to build a Pigeon Forge kind of place. We’ve built a city that the things that we have that bring tourists here are things that they wish they could experience every day like Chattanoogans, like the river walk and Coolidge Park.”
What we lack now, he says, is professional jobs like those in Atlanta and Austin, which causes many young people to leave for these places. This is why, moving toward the future, this office will work to help Chattanooga model Atlanta’s plans for attracting young minds and industries.
Keeping the triangle balanced, considering the impact on the four E’s, and making Chattanooga a green, clean, safe, prosperous and fun place to live are the ideas that the office of sustainability has planted and continues to grow.