Philip H. Knight Professor Mary Wood has received the Oregon State Bar President’s Sustainability Award. Wood is the Faculty Director of Oregon Law’s nationally top ranked Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center.

The President’s Sustainability Award recognizes members who have made significant contributions to the goal of sustainability in the legal profession in Oregon through education, advocacy, leadership in adopting sustainable business practices, or other significant efforts.

Professor Wood has published extensively on climate crisis, natural resources, and native law issues. She originated the approach called Atmospheric Trust Litigation to hold governments worldwide accountable for reducing carbon pollution within their jurisdictions, and her research is being used in cases and petitions brought on behalf of children and youth throughout the United States and in other countries. She is a frequent speaker on global warming issues and has received national and international attention for her sovereign trust approach to global climate policy.

Wood’s recent publications include The Public Trust Doctrine in Environmental and Natural Resources Law Public Trust Textbook 3d, and “On the Eve of Destruction”: Courts Confronting the Climate Emergency, Indiana Law Journal. The Public Trust Doctrine in Environmental and Natural Resources Law provides the first systematic approach to the study of the doctrine, which is rapidly adapting as courts and legislatures have extended its reach from waterways to wildlife, water rights, groundwater, beaches, and much more.

Professor Wood, along with several other OSB award recipients, will be honored at the end of October in a virtual celebration.