insight
Koben is a Manager in electricity practices. Koben is currently co-leading a new initiative at RMI to support and scale city efforts to procure and deploy clean and renewable energy. He is also co-leading RMI’s support of the America’s Pledge Initiative on Climate to analyze, catalyze, and showcase climate leadership by US governors, mayors, and CEOs. While at RMI, Koben has also led a DOE-funded solar cost reduction project, industry engagements to scale commercial energy efficiency, and the development of community-based strategies to achieve deep carbon reduction goals.
BACKGROUND
Koben has experience in energy policy and economics, statistical analysis, and energy modeling. He has managed a national collaboration to research and implement clean energy infrastructure in cities, worked as a technical advisor on green building and zero energy projects, and consulted on developing new programs and policies to address the impacts of climate change on buildings and cities. While in graduate school at the University of Michigan, Koben focused on energy policy and researching the impacts of climate change on buildings and cities.
LOCATION
Boulder, CO
TWITTER HANDLE
@kobencalhoun
EDUCATION & AWARDS
Master of Public Policy, Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan
Master of Urban Planning, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan
BA, Economics, University of Puget Sound
WHY DO YOU LOVE WORKING AT RMI?
“I am consistently inspired by the commitment and passion of my colleagues and our partners to work on complex and challenging problems that they believe will make our world a better place.”
Authored Works
Outlet Blog Post
Fulfilling America’s Pledge
When President Trump walked away from the US target under the Paris Agreement, we knew states, cities, and businesses needed to pick up the mantle of climate leadership. But people wanted to know: what difference can these bottom-up initiatives make? Is America’s pledge still within reach despite the abdication of…
Outlet Blog Post
The New Face of American Leadership on Climate Change
It’s official: U.S. states, cities, and businesses have emerged as the new face of American climate leadership on the global stage. Today, November 11, 2017 at the United Nations climate conference in Bonn, California Governor Jerry Brown and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled the first product of…
Outlet Blog Post
Demonstrating U.S. Climate Leadership
Since the White House announcement of its intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, American mayors, governors, CEOs, and other leaders have been reaffirming their support for continued action on climate change. As of last month, we have seen nine states, 227 cities and counties, 315 institutions of higher education,…
insight
Lumens as a Service
The energy revolution has been fueled by business model innovations that provide services to end users, rather than selling them capital. For solar photovoltaics, the innovation was the power purchase agreement. For mobility, it’s been a shift from personal car ownership to mobility services provided by the likes of Uber…
Outlet Blog Post
Lumens as a Service: The Multibillion-Dollar Market Opportunity Explained
Download RMI’s new report, Lumens as a Service: How to Capture the Technology-Enabled Business Opportunity for Advanced Lighting in Commercial Buildings. In recent years, building owners and property managers have been inundated with information about how they should invest in advanced lighting systems that enable increased control, save on…
Outlet Blog Post
Bringing Energy Efficiency into the 21st Century
In April 2016, RMI hosted its third annual eLab Accelerator. Described as a boot camp for electricity innovation, the four-day intensive work session brought together 13 teams from across North America—from North Carolina to Ottawa and California to New York—to work on new business models, energy innovation districts, and innovative…
Outlet Blog Post
The Bank of America Tower – What Is and What Could Have Been
The Bank of America Tower is making headlines—of the wrong sort. Yet an evaluation of the Bank of America Tower’s energy use and green building certification is a bit more complicated than the one-dimensional headlines may suggest.