Green? By what standard?

I was recently at a meeting between local leaders, discussing how the newly released National Green Building Standard (NGBS) fits in with existing state and city level green building programs and incentives.  There were a number of interested parties involved, including builders, designers, local utility companies, performance testers, city departments and state non-profits.  I was extremely happy that we had such a wide range of perspectives present; the conversation was most interesting and I’d like to quickly share some of the thoughts that came from the group.