General
Renewable Energy’s Footprint” Myth”
Many nuclear advocates argue that renewable electricity has far too big a land ‘footprint’ to be environmentally acceptable, while nuclear power is preferable because it uses orders of magnitude less land. If we assume that land-use is an important metric, a closer look reveals the opposite is true.
Turbocharging Efficiency Programs: Going for Broader and Deeper Savings
It is a new era for utility efficiency programs. Policymakers and regulators have required many utilities to achieve more efficiency savings than ever before, and the amount utilities spend on efficiency continues to increase at a rapid pace. Momentum for utility efficiency programs has never been greater. Utilities have been…
GSA Net Zero Renovation Challenge Charrette
The General Services Administration (GSA), Office of Federal High Performance Green Buildings (OFHPGB) and the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) have launched an effort to enhance and increase the usage of Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPCs) on GSA buildings. Rocky Mountain Institute and GSA convened a workshop in 2011 in…
DOD’s Energy Challenge as Strategic Opportunity
This unabridged version of an April 2010 article published in Joint Force Quarterly, the magazine of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, describes how two big ideas—endurance and resilience—can turn the DoD’s energy costs and vulnerabilities into sources of breakthrough advantage, major savings in blood and treasure, and…
Integrative Design: A Disruptive Source of Expanding Returns to Investments in Energy Efficiency
This paper summarizes the principle of integrative design. Integrative design rigorously applies orthodox engineering principles, but achieves radically more energy- and resource-efficient results by asking different questions that change the design logic. Examples described in this paper for buildings, industry, and vehicles show that optimizing whole systems for multiple benefits,…