Chattanooga, Tennessee

Over the course of 30 years, the citizens of Chattanooga have worked diligently to clear Chattanooga's air and improve her public image: building parks; making their city bicycle-friendly; and replacing diesel-powered buses with electric ones. Their efforts earned recognition in 1996 both from the President's Council on Sustainable Development and at the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements–Habitat II, where the city was given an award for Excellence in Improving the Living Environment. Not only has Chattanooga been recognized for the environmental practices it has adopted, but also for “The Chattanooga Process,” which was used to build community consensus around sustainability.

Chattanooga intends to establish itself as the nation's go-to place for information on sustainability, and therefore strives to stay on the cutting edge of ...