BuildingEnergy, the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association’s annual conference on sustainable building practices, opens its three-day schedule on March 3, 2015, at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston.

NESEA expects 3,500 building professionals from 32 states and eight countries to attend, representing just about every discipline in the construction process — architects, builders and building managers, manufacturers, educators, and others.

Organizers have planned hundreds of hours of educational sessions, including full- and half-day workshops on March 3 that will cover everything from air-sealing large commercial buildings and energy audits to solar design principles and net-positive energy building.

On Wednesday, the opening plenary and keynote address will focus on energy distribution on the grid, an important and often contentious topic these days. Session speakers are Karl Rabago, executive director of the Pace Energy and Climate Center at the Pace University School of Law in White Plains, New York; Mary Powell, CEO of Green Mountain Power Corporation in Vermont; and Ron Binz, a principal at Public Policy Consulting, which specializes in energy economics and policy.

The full schedule of sessions scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, March 4 and 5, is posted at the conference website.

Many of the speakers lined up for conference sessions will be familiar to GBA readers. There are too many to list (a full roster is available here), but among them is Katrin Klingenberg, executive director of the Passive House Institute U.S., who will discuss climate-specific PHIUS standards, which were released recently.

Lots to see at the trade show

If you buy a one- or two-day conference pass, you’ll also get access to the conference trade show scheduled for March 4 and 5.

The long list of exhibitors includes companies that sell specialized building materials for high-performance buildings, window and door manufacturers, builders like Bensonwood and BrightBuilt Home that specialize in high-performance design, equipment and materials manufacturers, educational institutions and others.

The winner of the annual $10,000 prize for best net-zero energy building also will be announced at the conference.

Information on pricing and accommodations is available at the BuildingEnergy 15 website.