Physicist Amory Lovins (1947), FRSA, is Cofounder and Chairman Emeritus of Rocky Mountain Institute; energy advisor to major firms and governments in 65+ countries for 40+ years; author of 31 books and more than 600 papers; and an integrative designer of superefficient buildings, factories, and vehicles.
Background
He has received the Blue Planet, Volvo, Zayed, Onassis, Nissan, Shingo, and Mitchell Prizes, the MacArthur and Ashoka Fellowships, the Happold, Benjamin Franklin, and Spencer Hutchens Medals, 12 honorary doctorates, and the Heinz, Lindbergh, Right Livelihood (“alternative Nobel”), National Design, and World Technology Awards. In 2016, the President of Germany awarded him the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse).
A Harvard and Oxford dropout, former Oxford don, honorary US architect, and Swedish engineering academician, he has taught at ten universities, most recently Stanford’s Engineering School and the Naval Postgraduate School (but only on topics he’s never studied, so as to retain beginner’s mind). He served in 2011–18 on the National Petroleum Council. Time has named him one of the world’s 100 most influential people, and Foreign Policy, one of the 100 top global thinkers. His latest books include Natural Capitalism (1999, www.natcap.org), Small Is Profitable (2002, www.smallisprofitable.org), Winning the Oil Endgame (2004, www.oilendgame.com), The Essential Amory Lovins (2011), and Reinventing Fire (2011, www.reinventingfire.com).
His main recent efforts include supporting RMI’s collaborative synthesis, for China’s National Development and Reform Commission, of an ambitious efficiency-and-renewables trajectory that informed the 13th Five Year Plan; helping the Government of India design transformational mobility; and exploring how to make integrative design the new normal, so investments to energy efficiency can yield expanding rather than diminishing returns.
Location
Basalt, CO
Twitter
@AmoryLovins
Downloadable Bios
General Audience
Energy/Security Audience
Automotive/Transportation Audience
Architecture Audience
Chinese Language
Authored Works
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This comment was posted on Nature.com in response to “Opportunities and challenges for a sustainable energy future” by Steven Chu and Arun Mujumdar. In it, Amory Lovins argues that integrating the Department of Energy’s technological solutions with innovative design, strategy, and public policy could solve many energy problems. The original…
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In this interview in Currents, the Navy’s energy and environmental magazine, Amory Lovins shares his ideas for an enduring and resilient Department of Defense.
Outlet Blog Post
In writing “The Electric Car, Unplugged” for the New York Times of Sunday, March 25, John Broder and his informants assert that “enthusiasm over electrification in the industry has begun to flicker and the price of battery technology remains stubbornly high.” Yet they unaccountably omit the…
Outlet Blog Post
David Owen continues to blame energy efficiency for the ills he ascribes to growth and wealth. His misunderstandings of “rebound” in energy use were devastatingly rebutted when he published them in The New Yorker, and now he’s expanded them to book length. But his post here…
Outlet Blog Post
Ray C. Anderson was the most visionary, inspiring, and effective green industrialist of the late 20th and early 21st century if not of all time. A brilliant Georgia Tech engineer and entrepreneur with the competitive drive and leadership qualities of an ex-quarterback, he created Atlanta-based Interface, Inc. and led it to unique success in turning green into gold.
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In this letter published in The New Yorker, Amory Lovins responds to David Owen’s article about energy efficiency and Jevons Paradox. This letter was published in the January 17, 2010 issue of The New Yorker and is reprinted with kind permission of the magazine. The original article, “The Efficiency Dilemma,”…
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In this article written in response to the Japanese nuclear crisis in 2011, Amory Lovins explains why nuclear energy is costly and dangerous and a poor alternative to renewable energy sources. Lovins argues that American nuclear plants are as risky as the Japanese plants and that there are lessons to…
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In April, 2011, Amory Lovins participated in an online debate for The Economist on whether the world would be better off without nuclear power. In Lovins’ debate piece, he presents evidence to show that new nuclear build is uneconomic and unnecessary.
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Amory Lovins interwove themes about Applied Hope and Imagine a World in this commencement address to the University of California at Berkeley’s Natural Sciences graduates on 15 May 2011. An amateur video of the speech is available on the RMI Outlet.
