Frederick Benton
Alex Jump

Local builder Frederick Benton often tries to get his customers to spend money on green building practices over “pretty” home finishes such as expensive doors and granite countertops.

They don’t always listen.

“It’s really hard to make them spend money where they should as opposed to where they want to,” he said. “All they see is it’s an extra $2,000. And they say, ‘For $2,000 I can get that really cool sink that I wanted.’”

Such responses didn’t stop Mr. Benton from trying to increase his knowledge about available green building products by attending Chattanooga’s first Eco Expo on Tuesday.

The expo, held at the Chattanooga Convention Center, gave local residents a buffet of ecologically friendly products for home, auto and garden. From hybrid and fuel-efficient cars to home insulation and biodegradable food packaging, the 99 local businesses’ and entrepreneurs’ booths made it clear that green services and products are available locally.

Mayor Ron Littlefield said Chattanooga’s turnaround makes it an ideal site for continuing eco entrepreneurism.

“There is no more appropriate city for an Eco Expo than Chattanooga,” he said Tuesday, noting that in the late 1960s the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared Chattanooga the most polluted city in the country.

“We all remember the picture of the car disappearing into smog,” he said, “but few people know that catalytic converters were developed out of studies here.”

The city used to send delegations to other locales to learn how to fix Chattanooga, he said, and now people from other cities come here to be inspired.

One of the expo’s speakers, Erik Daugherty of E3 Innovate, told visitors about the importance of LEED building standards. LEED, short for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green building rating system, encourages sustainable building and development practices with universal benchmarks.

As an example, he said, normal building practices leave enough air leakage around home windows and recessed light fixtures to equal leaving a 4- by 4-foot window wide open year round.

Other local officials also announced a meeting later this month on Earth Day to seek commitments to begin action on the city’s long-awaited Green Plan.

The plan, formally titled Chattanooga Green: Climate Action Plan, contains 47 recommendations, said Karen Hundt, director of the Planning and Design Studio.

Ms. Hundt, using a public input process last year, developed the plan, whose cornerstone elements include making buildings more efficient, planting more trees and instituting green purchasing programs.

Ms. Hundt and Pam Glazer, who also worked on the plan, said the Earth Day meeting this year will jump-start the proposals into action.

“We’re hoping for a big crowd — maybe 500 people, or more,” Ms. Glazer said.

“It’s going to take each and every one of us to be successful,” Ms. Hundt said.