Today's Baby Boomers are looking for cities that choose environmentally sensitive and energy efficient building options, according to Rachel Stroer, an architect with the firm, BNIM. This week Ms. Stroer gave local architects, government planners and builders advice about how to begin to promote those kinds of efforts on a much wider scale in Chattanooga.

Ms. Stroer says traveling down that kind of "green path" and developing a comprehensive plan would encourage professionals to stay in Chattanooga and aging Baby Boomers to choose this area when looking for a place to retire because it promotes and protects critical quality of life considerations.

Ms. Stroer earned national acclaim for her efforts in Greensburg, Ks. to rebuild into a "green" community after an EF5 tornado devestated the town in 2007. Chattanooga's new "Greenspaces" initiative, which promotes awareness and supports environmentally efficient building efforts hosted the event at its resource center on East Main Street.

When asked about those efforts to build support locally, Ms. Stroer told the group her success was the result of a grassroots "door-to-door" campaign that educated citizens about the benefits of building green.

Ms. Stroer says Greensburg's City Council established it the first town in the country to adopt a formal resolution to build according to LEED Platinum standards. "Initial building costs to the city came with a 15 percent higher price tag,” according to Ms. Stroer, “but the city realized a 40 percent energy cost savings as a result of the change and city-funded LEED Platinum projects paid for themselves in just five years because of those cost savings.”

Individual homeowners have also built higher efficiency homes on a wide scale.

Greensburg has successfully harnessed wind power as a local energy resource and constructed a new storm water management system without any man-made drains or storm pipes. Ms. Stroer says run-off from city streets, roofs and sidewalks flows through a naturally designed system that channels cleaner water back in the aquifers.

Ms. Stroer was also in Chattanooga this week to speak to the national convention of the AARC, the American Association of Retirement Communities of which Chattanooga has earned the National AARC Seal of Approval. The seal was established to recognize communities and master-planned developments that possess the resources and amenities to attract today's relocating retirees.

Choose Chattanooga is a local relocation initiative working to promote this area as a retirement destination and encourage programs that will that type of growth.