Funding from Mott Foundation fuels development of Blue Accounting

For immediate release: December 15, 2015  |   Download News Release PDF

Lansing, Mich. and Ann Arbor, Mich. –  The Nature Conservancy (nature.org/michigan) and the Great Lakes Commission (glc.org) will use a $4 million grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation to implement Blue Accounting, a program being led by the two organizations to support future decision making on issues facing the Great Lakes.

Blue Accounting was launched in response to the Great Lakes Governors and Premiers’ request that the Great Lakes Commission gather regional leaders to address programs to monitor the health of the Great Lakes. Their 2014 report, Blue Accounting, called for a new information strategy to support strategic decision making across the Great Lakes.

“Given the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent to protect the largest freshwater system on Earth, nothing could be more critical or transformational than establishing a system that will enable us to know whether our investments are effective in assuring the long-term economic and ecological health of the Great Lakes,” said Gov. Rick Snyder.

The Blue Accounting program will provide an online information platform and related services for use by leaders across the region. This initiative builds upon and complements the extensive data collection and management programs already in place throughout the basin.

“This will fundamentally transform the way we provide leaders in the region with the information they need to meet our shared goals for the Great Lakes,” said Tim Eder, executive director of the Great Lakes Commission.

“We are responding to the calls for much-needed tools and support for collaborative action to protect and restore the Great Lakes,” said Dr. Patrick Doran, assistant state director of Michigan for The Nature Conservancy. “This is a long-term effort that will require substantial resources, and we are extremely thankful to the Mott Foundation for this cornerstone funding.”

Blue Accounting will integrate and significantly enhance the Commission’s well-established Great Lakes Information Network (www.great-lakes.net) and the Conservancy’s innovative Great Lakes Inform (www.greatlakesinform.org) platforms. Together, these platforms will integrate existing data and information, work with leaders and managers to set performance metrics, and deliver services to enhance decision making.

“The Great Lakes face many complex threats, and the responsibility for solving those problems is spread across numerous government agencies. Blue Accounting will essentially create an information supply chain that delivers the right information to the right people at the right time, which will foster collaboration among those agencies,” said Ridgway White, president of the Mott Foundation. “We hope other foundations will join us in supporting this important initiative.”

The Commission and the Conservancy have entered into an agreement to advance Blue Accounting and, over the next five years, will work with partners to address several complex regional issues as pilot programs. Examples of these issues include safe and sustainable domestic water supply; healthy, diverse and connected habitats; and healthy and abundant wildlife. A joint team from the Commission and the Conservancy will work with issue-specific stakeholder groups to help them:

• Create shared goals and collaborative solutions;
• Identify performance metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of investments and programs;
• Determine the data necessary to support the metrics, and;
• Deliver these metrics to Great Lakes decision makers through the Blue Accounting information management and delivery infrastructure.

“Each of these pilot issues will offer an opportunity to explore and demonstrate the ways in which Blue Accounting can support practitioners, institutions, agencies and our communities with a process to measure the combined benefits of the many programs across the basin,” said Jon Allan, chairman of the Great Lakes Commission and director of the Michigan Office of the Great Lakes.

Contacts: Melissa Molenda, 517-230-0818, [email protected]; or Steve Cole, 734-971-9135, [email protected]

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The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to conserve the lands and waters upon which all life depends. In the Great Lakes region, the Conservancy works to make this among the most effectively managed ecosystems on Earth by protecting and restoring watersheds, forests, coastal areas and native fisheries. For more information, visit http://nature.org/michigan.

The Great Lakes Commission, led by Chairman Jon Allan, is an interstate compact agency established under state and U.S. federal law and dedicated to promoting a strong economy, healthy environment and high quality of life for the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence region and its residents. The Commission consists of governors’ appointees, state legislators, and agency officials from its eight member states. Associate membership for Ontario and Québec was established through the signing of a “Declaration of Partnership.” The Commission maintains a formal Observer program involving U.S. and Canadian federal agencies, tribal authorities, binational agencies and other regional interests. The Commission offices are located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Learn more at www.glc.org.