As stated on the website:

Minneapolis provides an excellent venue for ecologists to meet and discuss sustainable trends in the future of Planet Earth. From green cuisine to green buildings, transportation, and an emphasis on local agriculture, the city is an exemplar for sustainable living. Minneapolis is a good place to learn from past insights of city leaders. Circa 1883 the city (then with 50,000 people) created a parkway system that encircled the city with walking and bike paths, making most of the city’s waterfront on its chain of lakes and the Mississippi River into public space. Today these parks comprise one of the world’s greenest inner city environments, in a metro area with 3,300,000 people, including such gems as the Eloise Butler wildflower garden, and a quaking bog. Minneapolis is set in the midst of a transition across three biomes. There are few cities where one can, within a few hours, reach vast areas of grasslands, deciduous forests, boreal forests, and at least 10,000 lakes. The sustainability issues dealt with by Minnesotans thus range from agricultural practices and water quality to fisheries management and sustained yield forestry.