MEI works wherever its diverse partners want to accomplish shared goals that will benefit Minnesota’s environment. Our projects and successes are many. For example, our partners in Clean Air Minnesota are currently reducing pollution by more than 2.2 tons per day. MEI with its partners in Project Green Fleet have retrofitted over 1200 diesel school bus engines to reduce air pollution – and 2800 more buses are planned. The Clean Water Legacy Act passed in 2006 was a result of the many partners MEI brought together to find solutions to the growing problem of impaired waters in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. MEI has been building these innovative partnerships for over 15 years.


MEI coordinates a variety of projects that promote discussion of well-defined environmental topics, the development of solutions, and the effective application of those solutions through partnerships. MEI’s projects employ one of three approaches:

Dialogue: We create settings where conversations can take place on environmental issues leading to actionable steps. Our Policy Forum Series is an example of this approach.

Stakeholder processes: We deliberately bring together the diverse interests affected by an environmental problem and its solutions. Effective environmental policy is only possible when these stakeholders arrive at a common understanding of the problem and its solutions and agree to collaborative action. Our Mercury Total Maximum Daily Load project is an example of this approach.

Implementation: We apply the knowledge gained through dialogue and stakeholder processes to design and manage the next steps that will produce positive outcomes. MEI currently coordinates implementation projects such as Project Green Fleet.