Michael Wood

Michael Wood
Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Associate Dean, Work-Integrated Learning

Biography

Dr. Michael O. Wood is an Associate Professor – Teaching Stream in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development at the University of Waterloo. He holds a Ph.D. in Strategy and Sustainability from the Ivey Business School. His research explores organizational responses to sustainability challenges across sectors, including insurance, mining, water risk and the Blue Economy, carbon management, waste management, and global security and climate change.

Dr. Wood also serves as Associate Dean, Work-Integrated Learning, and is a co-PI on the Global Futures Fund 1.0 project, which is creating Canada’s largest integrated capstone ecosystem. He was also a co-Creator and is the current co-Director of the Sustainability and Financial Management program. He is an award-winning educator, recognized with the Faculty Teaching Award and multiple Outstanding Performance Awards for excellence in teaching and service.

Scholarly Research

His research has examined organizational perceptions and responses to sustainability issues through the lens of space, time, scale, and social license to operate in the contexts of the insurance industry, mining, carbon management, the Blue Economy, waste management, corporate governance, global security and climate change.

Education

  • 2006, Bachelor of Arts and Sciences, University of Guelph, Canada

  • 2008, Master of Environment and Sustainability, Western University, Canada

  • 2012, Doctorate, Strategy and Sustainability, Ivey Business School, Canada

Awards

  • 2025 Co-PI of “Building Canada’s Largest Capstone Ecosystem”, Global Futures Fund 1.0.

  • 2025 Faculty Teaching Award, Faculty of Environment

  • 2018, 2022, 2023 Favourite Faculty Award – Environment Grad Send-Off

  • 2021, 2024 Outstanding Performance Award – UWaterloo, Faculty of Environment

Service

  • Associate Dean, Work-Integrated Learning (2023 - Present)

  • Co-Director, Sustainability and Financial Management (2019-2022, 2025-Present)

Teaching*

  • ARTS 490 - Fourth-Year Topics in Arts Disciplines
    • Taught in 2025
  • ENBUS 102 - Introduction to Environment and Business
    • Taught in 2022, 2023, 2024
  • ENBUS 302 - Strategies for Environment and Business
    • Taught in 2021
  • ENBUS 402A - Environment and Business Project
    • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
  • ENBUS 402B - Environment and Business Project
    • Taught in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
  • ENBUS 475 - Special Topics in Environment and Business
    • Taught in 2024, 2025
  • ENVS 274 - Special Topics in Environment
    • Taught in 2021, 2022
  • ENVS 403A - Interdisciplinary Project
    • Taught in 2025
  • ENVS 403B - Interdisciplinary Project
    • Taught in 2026
  • ENVS 404 - Interdisciplinary Project
    • Taught in 2025
  • ENVS 474 - Special Topics in Environmental Studies
    • Taught in 2024, 2025
  • INDEV 490B - Honours Thesis: Project Completion
    • Taught in 2021
  • SFM 403 - Integrated Planning, Reporting, and Risk Management for Sustainability
    • Taught in 2025
  • SFM 413 - Integrated Policy and Regulation for Sustainability
    • Taught in 2025

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

Selected/Recent Publications

  • Singh-Thakur, B., Singh, S. and Wood, M.O. 2026. How prepared is Fiji to climate and geopolitical risks? Insights from a socio-metabolic risk (SMR) analysis. Journal of Industrial Ecology.

  • Appiah, A., Segger, M.-C. C., ElAlfy, A., Wood, M., & Weber, O. (2025). Corporate Involvement in the Sustainable Development Goals: The Case of Banks in Sub‐Saharan Africa. Sustainable Development.

  • Topcu, B., Kirkpatrick, S. I., Wood, M. O., & Dias, G. M. (2025). Life cycle climate impacts of eating patterns of Canadian provinces: Focus on meat and protein intake. Journal of Cleaner Production, 525, 146520.

  • Yang, Yi., Habib, Komal, Wood, M.O. (2023). Establishing best practices for E-commerce transport packaging waste management in Canada: A systematic review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 429(1).

  • Sandhu, G., Weber, O., Wood, M. O., Rus, H. A., & Thistlethwaite, J. (2023). An interdisciplinary water risk assessment framework for sustainable water management in Ontario, Canada. Water Resources Research, 59 (5), e2022WR032959.

  • Battikh, J.Y., Bodolica, V., & Wood, M. O. (2022). Disasters triggered by natural hazards and terrorism: A bibliometric network analysis into the intellectual structure of a cross-disciplinary research field. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 77.

  • Thistlethwaite, J., & Wood, M.O. (2018). Insurance and climate change risk management: Rescaling to look beyond the horizon. British Journal of Management, 29: 279-298.

  • Bansal, P., Kim, A., & Wood, M.O. (2018). Hidden in plain sight: Scale and its effect on organizational attention to issues. Academy of Management Review, 43(2): 217-241.

  • Wood, M. O., & Thistlethwaite, J. (2018). Social license to operate (SLO): Case review of Enbridge and the Northern Gateway Pipeline, in S. Dhiman & J. Marques (eds.) Handbook on Engaged Sustainability. Springer Nature.

  • Wood, M.O., T.J. Noseworthy, & S.R. Colwell (2013). If you can’t see the forest for the trees, you might just cut down the forest: The perils of forced choice on “seemingly” unethical decision-making. Journal of Business Ethics, 118(3): 515-527.

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