Saving a city from the nation's dirtiest air, grappling with stormwater pollution, facing new climate extremes, treating toxic risks, building cleaner energy, growing new foods, embracing cutting edge technologies and still gaining new jobs are just a few lessons to learn from Chattanooga during SEJ's 2013 conference.

Where the Tennessee River meets the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains lies a corridor where the Volunteer State's star role with atomic energy shaped the world. All of that history offers an ideal environmental learning ground that continues daily to play a role in tomorrow's exploration.

The Society of Environmental Journalists, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the Chattanooga Times Free Press invite you to learn from Chattanooga's past, present and future.

Sustainability and biodiversity are two common buzzwords often misunderstood in environmental communications. The two come together for SEJ in Chattanooga this year on several levels.

The main theme of the 2013 conference, October 2-6 in Chattanooga, is "sustainability." But what is sustainability? How will it shape our future communities, cities, industries and very culture and economy?

Chattanooga is the perfect venue to explore environmental history and the evolution of sustainability, and we'll get you out and about in the Chattanooga area so you can decide if it's the real environmental deal or just greenwashing.

As any ecologist will tell you, maintaining biodiversity is the backbone of sustainability. Well, Tennessee with its many rivers and distinct geological divisions — from the Appalachian Mountains to its swampy bottom land — is part of one of the most biologically diverse regions of the northern hemisphere. SEJ will take advantage of this with tours and sessions that address biodiversity's role in assuring future sustainability.

Find all the conference information here.