Part 1: The Great Advantage of the Great Lakes
Being situated on a Great Lake is a competitive advantage for Northeast Ohio that is often taken for granted. The Fund for Our Economic Future, along with the Cleveland Water Alliance and TIES, are part of a new multi-state coalition called Great Lakes RENEW focused on strengthening the industries, technologies and jobs built around water. In this two-part series, we chat with Alaina Harkness, CEO and principal investigator for Great Lakes RENEW, about the importance of the Great Lakes and the efforts to create economic opportunity across the region.
For more on the state of the Great Lakes and their impact on the economy, check out this recent City Club of Cleveland Forum featuring Bryan Stubbs, president and executive director of the Cleveland Water Alliance.
What makes the Great Lakes a competitive advantage?
We need to recognize that water is both an essential environmental and public health resource and a powerful economic asset—and those two ideas are not at odds with one another. In fact, our ability to protect and innovate around water is one of our greatest economic advantages.
The Great Lakes region holds a globally significant share of freshwater right in our backyard. That is a tremendous competitive advantage that should be central to how we attract talent, companies, and investment to our communities and position the region for long-term growth.
Strategically leveraging this asset does not mean simply using more water. It means using our expertise, infrastructure, and innovation capacity to develop the technologies, solutions, and industries that the world urgently needs to address critical water challenges.
Communities everywhere are facing growing water challenges, from aging infrastructure and climate impacts to emerging contaminants and increasing demand on our water systems. The Great Lakes region has a unique opportunity to become a global leader in developing and deploying solutions to these challenges.
By investing in water innovation alongside intentional planning and development frameworks, we can create jobs, attract investment, support manufacturers and entrepreneurs, and strengthen our regional competitiveness—all while improving the health, resilience, and sustainability of our water systems and communities. The Great Lakes has a chance to model what is possible for communities with natural resource advantages, but it will involve concerted, coordinated efforts to move beyond the status quo.
How does this competitive advantage benefit people?
People may not immediately see the connection between water infrastructure and the economy, but they largely do understand the importance of water. They want water that is clean, abundant, accessible, and affordable. When we recognize water’s economic value, it becomes clear that this resource is foundational to nearly every aspect of our daily lives—and that there are significant economic consequences if we fail to prioritize, protect, and sustain it.
The food we eat, the technology we use, and the products we rely on all depend on water. And emerging industries like semiconductor manufacturing, data centers, and advanced manufacturing require significant amounts of clean, reliable water to compete and thrive.
Investing in smarter, innovative water systems protects both the quality and availability of this critical resource while strengthening our economy. It gives businesses the confidence to invest and grow, helps municipalities attract new investment and development, supports existing industries, creates good jobs, and improves quality of life for communities.
Through Great Lakes RENEW, we’re helping build the workforce needed to power this future, creating pathways for researchers, engineers, skilled tradespeople, entrepreneurs, manufacturers, and students to pursue careers in the growing blue economy. Cleaner water, stronger infrastructure, and economic opportunity are not separate goals. They are deeply connected, and together they are essential to building a more resilient, competitive, and prosperous region.
What’s the biggest misconception about the Great Lakes as an economic asset?
It’s the perception of infinite local supply within the Basin, which has translated into a massive undervaluation of the resource and behaviors that make sense in the short-term but not in the long. You only need to look to data centers to see how powerfully a demand signal—even one based on imperfect information—changed the way people think about the value and availability of our water resources here.
It’s always hard to predict the future and even harder to change behavior in anticipation of a future that hasn’t yet arrived. But if you look at water risk and stress in our region, across the country and around the world, the trend is in one direction. Increased demand, increased uncertainty, increased risk and stress. That is going to change the value of the water resources we have, and we’ll all be better off if we start to change our practices now, before we are staring down a preventable crisis.
Read Part 2 of this series.
