Why It Matters: Billions of dollars are invested in programs that aim to support a sustainable ecosystem and healthy economy in the Great Lakes region. While many of these programs have shared goals, much of the data is presented in different formats. And despite all of this work and funding, decision makers currently have no way to gauge region-wide progress.
The
Great Lakes Commission and
The Nature Conservancy have partnered, with cornerstone support from the
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, to develop Blue Accounting, a groundbreaking program that will look at how we can best protect the Great Lakes region as a whole. Blue Accounting will bring together the right people to set region-wide goals, determine how best to track progress against those goals, and deliver the right information to help leaders better set priorities and allocate resources. The Commission and the Conservancy are developing three pilot programs to demonstrate how this model works.
Ultimately, the Blue Accounting program will help us achieve a sustainable Great Lakes ecosystem and support a healthy economy.
Our Strategies:
•
Partner with the Great Lakes Commission. Together, we are creating an on-line information management system combining the Commission’s
Great Lake Information Network (GLIN) and the Conservancy’s Great Lakes Inform system, adding new capabilities to support Blue Accounting collaboratives and metrics.
•
Create an initial platform,
Great Lakes Inform, to demonstrate the value of information management and delivery.
•
Initiate three
Pilot Issue Areas to demonstrate how collaboration and an information management and delivery system can helps us more efficiently make progress on key Great Lakes issues.
