30th Anniversary Outreach Shows Support for RMI’s Challenge to Transcend Timid Thinking

Co-chairing the RMI30 Host Committee with Suzanne Farver has been a great pleasure—although, at first, as Suzanne says, our task seemed daunting: “Call everyone in the world and invite them to a party at the Empire State Building!”

Simple, right?

As we began to make calls and compare notes, it quickly became clear that our task would be not only easier than we’d feared, but also highly enjoyable. The response of our board members, supporters, friends, and colleagues has been swift, enthusiastic, and generous.

Suzanne and I are both long-term believers in and supporters of Rocky Mountain Institute’s leading role in imagining and implementing a bold new energy future. Reaching out has reminded us of the deep loyalty RMI enjoys among a wide range of supporters.

Beginning with Amory Lovins’ “heretical” early work, RMI has challenged everyone with a stake in the world’s energy future to transcend incremental, timid thinking and action. For, indeed, RMI is now and always has been a “think and do tank.”

On May 10, our celebration of RMI’s 30th year will take place on the 61st floor of the most famous office tower in the world: the Empire State Building. We are proud and honored to be holding the event there, as RMI played a key role in consulting with the team of experts on a retrofit of that building which resulted in net energy savings of 38 percent.

It is fitting that the building housing RMI30 serves as a real-world example of what is possible when problems are imaginatively enlarged to offer ever more profitable solutions. The building’s owner, Tony Malkin, will join us that evening to discuss this hugely successful project and will remind the crowd that strict business logic and bottom-line expectations motivated and guided the project—not squishy sentiment or symbolic environmental gestures.

This work is especially convincing now, when we see other institutions of society fumbling the ball—congressional gridlock, anyone? RMI’s bold solutions allow us to focus on aligning all our interests: prosperity, health, national security, climate protection, or social equity. All are equally well served by bold solutions.

We hope that you will join us for this evening of celebration. More importantly, we hope that you will join us before, during, and after the evening’s celebration with continued support of RMI’s entire 30th year.

With your support, we are confident that 2012 will stand out as the year Reinventing Fire was really ignited.

— Peter Boyer
RMI Board of Trustees and Chair, RMI National Solutions Council