A conference on environmental issues this week in Sioux Falls is intended to energize environmentalists, bike riders and building designers hoping to be kind to the earth.

 "Sioux Falls is becoming an island of green in the Midwest," said architect Stacey McMahan. "We have great air quality and water quality for the most part, and we're paying attention to how we build our buildings."

McMahan is helping to organize Plain Green, running Wednesday through Friday at the Washington Pavilion. Koch Hazard Architects and South Dakota State University are partners in the event.

Sioux Falls and South Dakota are enjoying a run of successes in green thinking, from single-stream recycling to an uptick in interest in biking to work and carrying reusable grocery bags.

"People have received this whole green movement with open arms. It's so mainstream it's almost trendy," said Anne Haber of Howalt-McDowell insurance and property manager for Cherapa Place.

Thinking green is natural in the agricultural Midwest, said McMahan, 44, who's from Kansas and said she "grew up eating carrots and playing with worms." But that advantage can lead to complacency, she said.

"I hope it furthers the conversation," McMahan said of the conference. "Homeowners and people just interested in what they can do to make their home or business more green will find some things here."

Wednesday is a preconference workshop. The emphasis Thursday is art, design and construction, with sessions on sustainable landscapes, green housing and commercial work. One speaker is Matthew Moore, an agri-artist from Arizona who planted crops by color code as his way to comment on urban sprawl.

Friday will cover energy technology and policy, ethanol and essential renewables.

McMahan expects 250 people in the Pavilion's Belbas theater. The cost is $75.