Environmental Law Institute

Research and Policy Division:Provided research, education, training, and technical assistance in environmental law and policy to all sectors in the U.S. and numerous foreign countries. Research programs in 2024 covered a breadth of environmental law and policy topics, including assessing state wetlands programs, fisheries management in the Caribbean, and reducing and preventing food waste. ELI works at all jurisdictional scales, from local to international. Research initiatives included assessing hazard mitigation planning, examining the effects of recent Supreme Court decisions on environmental regulation and the regulatory environment, tabulating U.S. authorities to address plastic pollution, and more. We also continued myriad longstanding initiatives, such as those on water management, indoor air quality, environmental peacebuilding, judicial education, the Local Government Environmental Assistance Network, and the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement, among others. Our ongoing programs also continued to provide guidance, education, and recognition to environmental professionals nationwide such as through the Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review; training for states, territories, and tribes on the Total Maximum Daily Load and other Clean Water Act programs; our Indoor Air Quality program; our annual National Wetlands Awards program; and others. In addition, among its internationally focused initiatives, ELI analyzed customary water tenure in sub-Saharan Africa; supported the Women in Water Diplomacy Network; and continues to lead in the field of environmental peacebuilding, which integrates natural resource management into conflict prevention, mitigation, resolution, and recovery to build resilience in communities affected by conflict. For a fuller description of our programs, please refer to our annual report, which can be found at www.eli.org.

Associates & Education Division: Led 80 events, including conferences, webinars, policy forums, networking receptions, topical conference calls, Eastern and Western Boot Camps on Environmental Law, Summer School seminars, annual Supreme Court preview and review, public seminars and more, for 32,502 environmental professionals (virtually and in person). Topics of discussion ranged, including administrative law, agriculture, careers in environmental law, coastal issues, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, climate change, climate disclosures, compliance and enforcement, the Endangered Species Act, energy law, environmental justice, environmental rule of law, ESG, federal regulatory and legislative environmental updates, international environmental law, model ordinances and municipal policies, the National Environmental Policy Act, PFAS, plastics, products regulation, RCRA, state environmental law updates, Supreme Court cases, technology and infrastructure, TSCA, and more. For a fuller description of our programs, please refer to our annual report which can be found at www.eli.org.