The tour was very interesting with Jonathan Rider pointing out key features and explaining function; we also had the additional input of Met Ulker, an engineer on the project. Following the tour we all made our way to Elizabeth's Cafe (much higher-end than the name might suggest) and enjoyed a great dinner along with the usual liquid libations.

As we sat with our coffees after dinner, Ray Cole spoke informally for an hour or so about the challenges of formulating green building performance criteria (especially ones that are applicable cross contexts and internationally); different perspective camps; politics; the origins of the initiative, its' progress and its future directions.

Ray also talked ab it about GBC2002 (Oslo, probably September) and we can expect to hear more on that in the upcoming months. Currently it appears that 4 working sessions are planned as part of the event:

1. Weighting protocols.
2. Context & Transportation.
3. Benchmarking and scoring protocols (for a particular project in a particular region). Ray also talked about 37 cases that were examined recently. One might assume there would s be some agreement -- especially within a region -- but he found as much as a 500% difference in benchmarks used even within a region!
4. Performance Criteria! At the moment, it looks like 4 areas for performance criteria have been agreed upon: absolute energy use; green house gas emissions; water use; and land use. Sounds like a good start.