The term “sustainability” is used broadly and in a wide variety of contexts, frequently synonymous with green building. It is our perspective that green building is just one step towards true sustainability, which would require no negative impacts on the environment. Even still, regenerative design should be the ultimate goal, not “sustainability.” While the terms sustainability and green design may seem to be used interchangeably within this document, please note the slight nuances in each situation.
Tuttle is co-founder and partner in Trace Collaborative. She received her BA in 1996 from New College of California School of Humanities located in downtown San Francisco. With studies focused on “Education for a Just, Sacred & Sustainable World” Tuttle developed a toolbox of communication skills to explore the underlying assumptions and judgments of language. Attention is paid to the power dynamics of communication, response to criticism, and the importance of listening. After graduation Tuttle lived and worked on a Permaculture Farm in Kauai, Hawaii with an intentional community based on the principles of “conscious evolution.” It was here that Tuttle realized her role as a bridge between the future and the present.
With deep interest in the nature and purpose of the human relationship to the natural world, Tuttle studied at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley, CA. Her work there focused on three different interrelated levels of human existence: the Educational/Philosophical, Institutional/Physical-Structural, and Communal/Bioregional. In 2001 she arrived in North Carolina and was instrumental in helping the Center for Ecozoic Studies (CES) incorporate as a non-profit organization. In 2004 Tuttle received her Masters of Divinity (MDIV) and worked for two years as Sustainability Research Associate at UNC Chapel Hill. She continues to organize and officiate “green weddings” throughout the country but has fallen in love with the Piedmont Bio-Region and spends her favorite hours at home, with her husband and two dogs, dancing in the garden. Tuttle currently serves as Co-Chair of the Emerging Green Builders (EGB) Committee of the U.S. Green Building Council North Carolina Triangle Chapter.
Rider is co-founder and partner in Trace Collaborative. She received her BArch from the University of Cincinnati in 2000. Working with HOK directly after graduation, she became the Sustainable Champion for the Houston office, leading the charge in LEED Accreditation. Finding deep interest in the psychology of designers “going green,” Rider returned to Cornell University for her Masters in Design and Environmental Analysis, completed in January 2006. Entitled “Education, Environmental Attitudes and the Design Professions,” her studies looked at factors impacting environmental attitudes of designers. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Design at North Carolina State University focusing on sustainability within design formal education.
Rider is past-chair of the Emerging Green Builders (EGB) Committee of the U.S. Green Building Council, and consults with the USGBC on their EGB initiative. An original member of the national committee, EGB focuses on students and young professionals interested in sustainability but lacking support, resources or opportunities. National initiatives include a national design competition, local design charrettes partnering with environmental education, annual EGB events at Greenbuild, and local EGB efforts throughout the country. Because of her involvement in the EGB, she was granted the individual USGBC Leadership Award in Education for 2005 and was included in a group labeled as “The Re-Inventors” in Vanity Fair’s Green Issue in May 2006, in the company of established visionaries in sustainability such as William McDonough, Paul Hawken and Sim van der Ryn.
