Summary: Take advantage of this fall’s crop of sustainable building conferences, seminars, and events. These events (national and regional in scale) will offer continuing education opportunities, networking receptions, and industry-leading keynote speakers.

Sustainable Suburbs Forum, Urban Land Institute, October 8 in Washington, D.C. Speakers and panelists will include Patrick Phillips, CEO, ULI Worldwide; Ellen Dunham-Jones, associate professor, Georgia Institute of Technology; Marilee Utter, president, Citiventure Associates; Mark Schneider, managing partner, Fourth River Development, Pittsburgh; Roger Platt, senior VP of Global Policy and Law, U.S. Green Building Council. Contact Trisha Riggs at 202-624-7086 or priggs@uli.org.

From October 10–11, Green Festival in Washington, D.C., will showcase the entire spectrum of the sustainability movement, including consumer products, social, energy, and economic policies; organic food and farming; and green building. Key speakers will include Carlton Eley, NOMA, with the EPA; Ed Begley Jr., actor and spokesperson for GreenSwitch; and Sandray Chandra, president of Green Brilliance, a global solar energy firm. (San Francisco will be home to Green Festival November 13–15.)

The Consulate General of Sweden in New York is hosting a green building seminar on October 14 at Victor Borge Hall in the Scandinavia House at 58 Park Avenue in Manhattan. Topics will include: greening federal workplaces through ARRA funding and how to make sustainable building profitable. RSVP by October 5 to greenbuilding@swedennewyork.com. E-mail lars.ostling@foreign.ministry.se or mats.johansson@skanska.com for more information.

Sustainable Delaware 2009, AIA Delaware’s fourth annual sustainability conference will take place at the University of Delaware October 15–16. Conference topics will include: understanding building performance, historic preservation and sustainability, carbon footprinting, urban heat island mitigation, and zero energy buildings. Details are available on AIADelaware.org.

The Greenbuild International Conference and Expo will bring keynote speaker former Vice President Al Gore to Phoenix. The conference will take place from November 11–13 and will feature a residential sustainability summit, LEED education and provider workshops, and a wide array of green education opportunities.

The annual Ecobuild America conference will take place December 7–10 in Washington, D.C. All of the event’s programming is divided into five tracks that speak to the entire spectrum of the sustainable design and construction industry: BIM and information technology; building performance and energy efficiency; green building, LEED, and sustainable design; practice and business management; and sustainable sites and infrastructure. Acting Architect of the Capital Stephen Ayers, AIA, will be a keynote speaker.