If you are planning on building a new home or looking to do some renovations in your current house the Building Sustainability Conference in Kimberley is a good place to get some ideas on how to do make it a green project.

Building Sustainability: A Green Homes and Renovations Conference is a two-day event taking place Jan. 29 and 30 in Kimberley that features live and web-based presentations, panel discussions and workshops.

The event starts on Friday with Onstage at McKim: Talking About Green Building, which starts at 7:30 p.m. at McKim Middle School (689 Rotary Drive).

“It’s going to be an introduction to green building, we’ll be talking about the overall benefits to the community and the individual,” said Kevin Brown, organizer of the conference. “It’s going to be a little more general than the workshops on Saturday. We’re having some of the leading people in the field of ecologically conscious design.”

Those presenting that evening including Sarah Susanka, author of eight best-selling books including The Not So Big House, David Eisenberg, co-founder of thenon-profit Development Center for Appropriate Technology, Tang Lee, solar architect, and Stuart Cowan, a leading expert in the integration of the science of complex systems, ecological design and finance.

Tickets for the Friday event are $10 and are available at Black Bear Books and Video in Kimberley and Lotus Books in Cranbrook.

Monday is full of different workshops on various topics. Green Renovation Design is for those considering renovations, The Business Case for Green Building explores benefits of green building for the builder and owner/client and Green Energy Systems explores how to use natural resources to energize your home. Other topics including green planting, natural building, construction, green building certification, green materials, adapting and renovating heritage buildings and green communities.

“If you’re a builder, if you’re a homeowner and even if you’re a general member of the public you’ll get something from each workshop,” Brown said.

All workshops are at the College of the Rockies campus in Kimberley (1850 Warren Avenue) and registration for the workshops is through the college. The full conference package, including the Onstage at McKim event, four workshops, lunch on Saturday and access to the Green Building Showcase will cost $75 until the end of business hours today. After Friday, Jan. 15 the price for the full conference will be $95.

The Green Building Showcase, a tradeshow, begins at 12 p.m. and goes until 5 p.m. It is open to the public and free to attend.

Part of the conference is a Green and Affordable Homes for Kimberley Design Competition. Entrants are asked to design two units of green and affordable housing and the winning entry may be used to inform the final design and construction of affordable housing units in Kimberley. The winner will receive a prize of $1,000.

“It’s a really fun and interesting sideline to the conference,” Brown said. “We’ve got some excitement about green building, we might as well find out where that can go in terms of providing for affordable housing.”

The entries will be showcased at the Onstage at McKim event and the winning entry will be announced on Friday, Feb. 5 in Kimberley. To register call 1-877-489-2687.

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