About my retirement

Hello!

Welcome to my retired professional services page. Yes - I am retired! What will I do “at my age”? Let’s find out together.

Below are some highlights from a fruitful career. Moments of joy and learnings allowing me to step into my unburying today.

I will keep involved in various projects (including HPDC, now as Chief Technologist) and start new ones, with some of the following guiding thoughts.

I am a full-time writer, father, farmer, and artist. And I am following where those things go, with no professional “objective” or “mission statement” or “monetization strategy.” I’m not hoping to get “busy” or “make it big” or “be discovered.”

I’m getting un-busy. I’m playing with history. Unlearning patriarchy. I’m getting lost in the wilderness.

Come along with me on my blog and forthcoming autobiography, and you can too.

I am trying to be useful, helpful, and available. How? I’m listening to what my body and spirit need. By talking to my ancestors on the land.

I’m listening to you—to what my family, friends, and community need from me. So reach out.

When people retire in their 40s, I imagine them having a lot of money, or external support. I don’t. I’m simply opening up space for my bread to come from freedom and love, and not obligation. I’m opening up space. Retiring to “spend more time with my family” isn’t a euphemism. It’s the most important mission of my life and a source for what I share back with you.

If you’re curious about working together or want to stay in touch with the latest opportunities, please sign up for my private email list, and/or use the Contact page to reach me!

Past becomes prologue, so I’m leaving the rest of my former “Offerings” page up for both of us to remember pre-retirement me by. See you out there!

-Tristan, Feb. 3, 2022

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Here’s my old professional services page, updated with current roles as of Feb. 2022:

I’m now Chief Technologist, but until recently was, for four years Technical Director as well as Education Director for the Health Product Declaration Collaborative (HPDC). I’ve been responsible for technical development of the HPD Open Standard, and I’ve so far led the release of three major updates to the standard.

Because we are what we eat, you might choose organic or natural foods. Did you know we also absorb into our bodies and our children’s bodies thousands of chemicals from our carpeting, paint, office furniture, electronics, and more? (Here’s a recent article detailing the extent of this and its impact on sperm count, miscarriages, and related health issues.)

If you want to avoid these chemicals, there is precious little data to guide you. That’s where the HPD Open Standard comes in, and close to a 1,000 manufacturers have used it to publicly report a standardized list of the chemical contents of their products and the health hazards thereof.

To learn more about HPDs, please contact me via HPDC. It’s easy for manufacturers of all sizes to join this voluntary movement and show you care about your customers!

Prior to joining HPDC in May 2018, I was on the team at BuildingGreen, Inc. for eleven years. In addition to pioneering research into dozens of high-impact topics in green building (check out some useful highlights here), I led the launch of content and forum on LEEDuser.com. Since 2009 LEEDuser grew into the go-to resource for tens of thousands of LEED project teams to get their questions answered.

Some of the best people in the world are working hard in this industry to do the right thing. That gives me a low tolerance for greenwash and b.s. Between that and my dad jokes (ok, probably not the dad jokes), I get invited regularly to speak at conferences and events including Living Future, AIA National Convention, Greenbuild, Yale University, architecture firm events, and at corporate events. If that sounds interesting, please simply contact me and find out more on my Speaking page.