Bringing Water Stewardship to Life Through Collaboration, Innovation, and Action in Chicago
March 31 – April 1, 2026 Last week, the Council of the Great Lakes Region (CGLR) was proud to come together with partners from across North America in Chicago for a series of impactful events focused on advancing water stewardship across sectors. From immersive, behind-the-scenes learning experiences to forward-looking strategy discussions, the week highlighted the […]
Insights from GreenBiz 2026 in Arizona 🌵💧
February 18, 2026 We’re still buzzing from our time at #GreenBiz26 in Phoenix this February. It was certainly an event that leaves you feeling energized, inspired, and honestly thinking a little bigger about the work ahead. A real highlight for us was having CGLR’S Chief Operating Officer, Lora Shrake, take the stage for a session […]
Final Report of the IJC Great Lakes Science Advisory Board Work Group on Microplastics
Monitoring, Ecological Risk Assessment, and Management of Microplastics in the Laurentian Great Lakes Plastics are a diverse and ubiquitous group of materials that have seen a surge in production in the past century. The widespread use of plastics coupled with unsustainable materials management has led to plastic pollution, including the ubiquity of microplastics across the […]
Green Stormwater Infrastructure Case Study: Davidson ParkÂ
Davidson Park is a signature Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) project developed through the Fresh Coast Protection Partnership (FCPP), a community-based partnership between CIS and the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD). Located on the Harley-Davidson headquarters campus on the west side of Milwaukee, Davidson Park transformed what was a large employee parking lot into a signature […]
Choosing Your Great Lakes Future: A New Online Scenario Game
The Great Lakes of today are much cleaner and healthier than they were in the early and mid-1900s. Substantial investment and effort have improved the environments and communities around the Great Lakes. Yet, there is more work to be done to fix problems that remain and protect recent improvements from threats on the horizon. To […]
Driving Sustainable Growth: A Testimonial from The Water Institute’s Participation at the 2024 Great Lakes Sustainable Growth Forum
In late June, the Council of the Great Lakes Region (CGLR) in collaboration with the Toronto Region Board of Trade, hosted the Great Lakes Sustainable Growth Forum. This significant event united leaders from various sectors to tackle critical challenges, explore how to responsibly grow the Great Lakes regional economy, and protect the Great Lakes – […]
Life is Better by the Lakes: A New Summary of Great Lakes Climate Plans
What common themes exist across the Great Lakes region around climate action? What if the region had a unified vision? A team from the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) and the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise aimed to find out. With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in […]
Measuring What Matters: Household Water Use in the Great Lakes Region
“Measure what matters” and “You can’t manage what you can’t measure”: those may be old clichĂ©s, but they’re still goodies! Business managers everywhere know that tracking important metrics and trends and understanding the drivers behind them is essential to strategic decision-making and course-correcting when necessary. But in the world of water management, good measurements can […]
Fighting for the Future of the Great Lakes
I’ve spent most of my life around lakes. I grew up in Madison on an isthmus between two incredible bodies of water. One of my favorite trips in my early twenties was traversing the Great Lakes in an RV with my dad and my dog. I now live in Chicago, and our proximity to Lake […]
Meijer Expands Great Lakes Stewardship Commitment with Donation to the Council of the Great Lakes Region Foundation
Donation will help improve water and wildlife quality in river corridors throughout Wisconsin. GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., April 16, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Midwest retailer Meijer is continuing its commitment to Great Lakes stewardship with a $250,000 donation to the Council of the Great Lakes Region (CGLR) Foundation to launch a set of innovative litter capture and clean-up technologies – the BeBot and […]