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Local building professionals will be able to learn about designing and building to lower energy loads at a conference slated for March 10 and 11.

Tad Everhart, board member of the Passive House Northwest nonprofit trade association based in Olympia, Wash., said the passive house method of construction, developed in Germany, consumes 80 to 90 percent less energy than most new construction.

The conference, sponsored by Passive House Northwest, will take place at the Ambridge Event Center at 333 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. For more information and to register, visit .

Everhart said Oregon took an early lead in passive house construction for homes, but it is becoming used more in tall buildings. One of the speakers, architect Lois Arena of Steven Winter Associates in Atlanta, will talk about a 26-story passive house building she’s designing.

More than a dozen speakers from around the country will give presentations, Everhart said. Some topics will include case studies of passive house construction, strategies for building, resiliency modeling and meeting the carbon challenge.