Flow Water Advocates

Everything we do is reflected in our name: For Love of Water. Our mission is to empower people with public trust strategies that will protect the Great Lakes forever. FLOW's solution-oriented work comes at a time when the health of the Great Lakes hangs in the balance, and citizens and leaders are looking for viable long-term policies to improve and protect these common waters. Famed environmental attorney Jim Olson and a coalition of citizens formed FLOW in 2011. As the Great Lakes Basin's only public trust policy and education center, we demonstrate how policies like the public trust and commons can provide an overarching policy framework that empowers decision-makers to safeguard 20 percent of the world's fresh water. FLOW develops policy programs and educates high-level decision-makers, city and community leaders, and citizens to adopt and incorporate public trust ideas into decisions affecting water, energy, food, and climate change in the Great Lakes.