Lunch & Learns

Everyone lives downstream

Presented by: Rosy Harpe

Click to hear from the Sustainable Landscape Ecologist at WaterWays on how our personal everyday actions have a long-lasting impact in a changing world.

Rotary Tree Towns: Nooga Night Rotary Club

Presented by Kurt Martig

Nooga Nights Rotary Club discusses their tree planting initiatives across the Chattanooga area. Nooga Nights Rotary Club’s Mission is strengthening communities and beautifying neighborhoods through tree plantings.

Howlentine’s Day: Loving our Endangered Red Wolves

Presented by Tish Gailmard

Did you know that the Red Wolf is the most endangered canine in the world? Reflection Riding has been a part of the American Red Wolf SAFE since 1996, housing, breeding and educating about Red Wolves. It's also Red Wolf breeding season so Red Wolf love is in the air!

Re-solutions III: Wise Wood Utilization and Responsible Re-use for a Beautiful, Healthy, and Resilient Built Environment.

Presented by Aaron Gould

This New Year, look around at all of the new construction, especially in the residential, mid-rise multi-family and mixed-use sectors. How long will these buildings be around? As newly-baked buildings with artificial reclaimed materials sprinkled on top proliferate, let’s take a refreshing look at how to properly integrate authentic old stuff and durable, high-performance new stuff. As we pursue comfort and prettiness, construction defect attorneys chase after water infiltration. So how do we make buildings comfortable, pleasing to the eyes, kind to people and their wallets, and be lawsuit-resistant? How do we incorporate leaky old materials in new high-performing façades?  Wood is a wonderful way of introduction to sustainable materials and reuse potential.  It will be our companion, catalyst and challenge for answering these questions. 

Taking the Deconstruction Road to zero waste

Presented by Pat Smith and Dave Bennink

Deconstruction is the systematic and careful disassembly of a building in order to recover materials for reuse, thereby maximizing their economic, environmental, educational and cultural value to the community. The Deconstruction Advisory Board was established in 2021 as the beginning step for the exploration of our current built environments and how Chattanooga and Hamilton County can benefit from not throwing good usable materials away. The National Association of Remodeling Industry estimates that every 2000 sq ft home that is demolished adds approximately 10,000 cubic feet of debris to a landfill. Deconstruction allows 80% or more of a building’s material to be saved.

Bridging Safety & Community Impact

Presented by Savannah Ward and Eric Asboe

Presentation can be downloaded here.

The Walnut Street Bridge is one of the world’s longest pedestrian bridges and is a highly trafficked avenue for active transportation in Chattanooga. It is expected to close for extensive preventive structural repairs and maintenance. A needs assessment was conducted to understand the potential impact on physical activity, identify alternative active transportation corridors, and assess safety concerns of displaced bicycle and pedestrian foot traffic during the closure.

Chattanooga Brownfield Program

Presented by Dwan Austin (City of Chattanooga) and Troy Keith (Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation)

Like many former industrial towns, Chattanooga is home to several brownfield sites. These properties are often abandoned land and/or structures once utilized in the energy exploration, steel production, and manufacturing industries and still contain a significant presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. Troy Keith with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and Dwan Austin with the City of Chattanooga explore the ins and outs of brownfields, discuss past projects, and opportunities for improving Chattanooga.

Nurse Family Partnership

At this month’s Lunch and Learn, Betsy Morton, RNC, CNM, from Erlanger Nurse Family Partnership and Keyta Young-Price, Program Manager at Build It Green, will speak about how the partnership between our Build It Green workforce development program and Erlanger can help determine what interventions can improve your health and the health of your family- right inside of your home. Betsy and Keyta will walk through a comprehensive healthy home assessment and analysis.

Carbon Offsets 101

Presented by Ongeleigh Underwood

Ongeleigh Underwood works on climate solutions by managing complex, collaborative initiatives from inception to growth. With a background in Environmental Science, she has experience working in environmentally based start-ups and nonprofit agencies.  Her current roles include the Managing Director of the Circular Carbon Network, an initiative of the XPRIZE Carbon Removal and the Executive Director of the Appalachian Carbon Exchange, based in Chattanooga TN. 

C-PACER Financing

Presented by Nicole Robben and Eric Asboe

Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy and Resiliency (C-PACER) is a relatively new and quickly growing alternative financing mechanism for energy efficiency, water efficiency, renewable energy and resiliency projects.

C-PACE makes it possible for owners and developers of commercial properties to obtain low-cost, long-term financing which is paid back through an annual assessment on the organization’s property tax bill.
Presentation can be found here.

The SUSTAINABLE FUTURE OF FREIGHT

Presented by Nick Cookson, Matt McClelland, and Tyler Cole

Whether electrification, hydrogen, the intersection of decarbonization and autonomization, or other ESG strategies, this panel will explore the challenges and opportunities in freight logistics as we think about sustainable supply chains moving forward.

This Lunch & Learn kicked off the CO.MOBILITY Summit, powered by CO.LAB, a groundbreaking event bringing together the brightest minds in sustainable mobility innovation. More information can be found at: CO.MOBILITY Summit

The missing middle

Presented by Paul Beckmann and Amelia Dicks

Wind River Tiny Homes is committed to creating attainable housing solutions that are built with exceptional craftsmanship and design. Their devotion to incorporating great design into sustainable living solutions has had a positive impact on the growth of sustainable living in the Chattanooga area.

Chattanooga’s Parks & outdoor Plan

Presented by Akosua Cook, City of Chattanooga

Presentation can be downloaded here.

For the last 14 years the City has lacked a strategic vision to guide park investments. To rectify this situation, the City of Chattanooga has developed the Parks and Outdoors Plan (POP) which is essentially a roadmap to reinvent Chattanooga as a City in a Park- where a system of parks and protected open spaces connect people to each other and where all neighborhoods have well loved and well used parks. The POP is a community driven document reflecting what we heard through our engagement process. This plan aims to elevate the role of parks in building a better and healthier Chattanooga for all.

8 Principles of a Healthy Home

Presented by Hector Moreno, Green and Healthy Homes Initiative

Learn about the 8 Principles of a Healthy Home as well as the Green & Healthy Homes Model that comprehensively integrates Healthy Homes practices, lead hazard control, and energy efficiency/weatherization upgrades. This comprehensive approach to healthy homes includes understanding the root causes and health & safety impacts of home-based environmental hazards to how to properly address such hazards.

USDA REAP GRants

Presented by Solar Alliance: For this Lunch & Learn, we learn the ins and outs of applying for a grant through the USDA Rural Energy for America Program. The USDA REAP provides grant funding and guaranteed loan financing for agriculture producers and small businesses in rural areas. Agricultural producers also qualify in non-rural areas but must earn at least half their gross income from farming operations.

Reducing Waste During the Holiday Season

Make your holidays more sustainable — Join Michael Ryan from New Terra Compost and Jimmy Urciuoli from Green Steps to prepare for the holidays! They will review several, simple ways you can reduce waste during these next few weeks.

Inflation Reduction Act

Learn what rebates are available for homeowners through the IRA!

Learn what rebates are available for businesses through the IRA!

Jerome Garciano is an attorney in the firm’s Tax credit Finance Practice Group in the Real Estate and Financial Services Department. Jerome’s practice focuses on state and federal tax financing incentives affecting the built environment. Mr. Garciano provides tax and finance support for developers, lenders, syndicators, investors, nonprofit sponsors, and government agencies in renewable energy and real estate developments using the Historic, New Markets, Renewable Energy, and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits.

He is a LEED-accredited professional and has advised clients on utilizing energy efficiency and renewable energy tax incentives. Jerome’s sustainability practice focuses on building and developing sustainable projects, including energy efficiency, renewable and alternative energy, green building, smart growth, water resources, and preservation of natural resources.

Chattanooga’s urban canopy

Charlie Mix, the GIS Director for UTC and the IGTLab, and Will Stuart present the research behind the Chatanooga Urban Forest Canopy Project. This high-resolution map will be used by the City of Chattanooga Tree Commission and green|spaces to address issues and identify solutions pertaining to tree equity, urban heat island effect, carbon sequestration, air and water quality, and more.

BAMBUKSA with Jorge Bonilla

SCALING SUSTAINABILITY

How small and mid-sized businesses can apply sustainability best practices from leading corporations, presented by Ali Ahmed of Green Strategies, LLC

RainSmarT Yards

Little actions can make a big difference! The RainSmart Yards program is a three-tiered system that awards homeowners who are practicing sustainability both inside and outside of the home. See what you’re doing right in your yard, and what you can improve: mywaterways.org/rainsmartyards

The Green Prix!

In 2017, green|spaces piloted with 8 local elementary, middle & high school for students to construct GreenPower USA electric power race cars. We are now in over 45 local schools and are excited to race again in 2021/2022!

For this Lunch & Learn, we asked a panel (SCCA Member, EPB representative Ken Jones, student builders, and a school advisor) to tell us all about the Green Prix!

EPB’s Smart Grid & THe Future of EV

Thirteen years ago, EPB launched a 100% fiber optic Smart Grid. Since that time, EPB has earned PEER Gold certification and Chattanooga’s electric grid has been named “the most resilient and renewable-ready certified grid in the United States,” by the GBCI. What has this state of the art system meant for resilience and sustainability in our community, and how will it support the low carbon tech of the future, like EVs? Learn how our smart grid is managing change and how EPB is preparing for the mass adoption of electric vehicles, an industry revolution that may be coming on faster than most folks think.

Planning a zero waste event

Cris Angsten of Oak Leaf Cottage in Trenton, GA tells us about the strategies her venue implements to reduce waste. Her team has successfully gotten weddings down to a single trash bag! Brian Wright of Mercedes Benz Stadium shares his experience of a large scale vendor and as a client. Brian recently had a zero waste wedding!

Blue zones: Transforming health through lifestyle and the built environment

Dr. Suzannah Bozzone with True Health Journey will teach us about Blue Zones: regions of the world where a combination of the built environment and lifestyle choices have increased the average length and quality of life while simultaneously reducing carbon footprint.

CAN I RECYCLE THIS?

Debunking myths about the 3rd R in the waste hierarchy.

SMART SOLUTIONS — Chattanooga’s SSO problem

How can we use cutting-edge technologies to collect, reclaim, & reuse wastewater?

Join green|spaces and Jacobs as we discuss how to better utilize waste as a resource.

Spotlight on solar

What’s on the horizon for the industry’s future? Who qualifies for USDA REAP Grants?

Communities, Companies, & sustainability attraction

What policies and plans can attract the right kind of corporation + community partnerships?

With: Angelou Ezeilo, founder of the international Greening Youth Foundation (based in Atlanta) & author of Engage, Connect, Protect — Empowering Diverse Youth as Environmental Leaders, Pablo Mazariegos, director of Bigger Than Me, & Clark Brewer, founder of Bridge Chattanooga + Huemans Outdoors, & subject of Bigger Than Me.

April Lunch & Learn -

Designing your spring yard

Click to download presentation slides: Waterways, Reflection Riding Arboretum & Nature Center

March Lunch & Learn -

All About EVs

February Lunch & Learn -

Focus on Impact: Integrated Community Sustainability

Special Event: Start Up Week Gig City Innovation Challenge