Amory Bloch Lovins (born November 13, 1947)
is an American writer, physicist, and former chairman/chief scientist of the
Rocky Mountain Institute
RMI (Rocky Mountain Institute) is an organization in the United States co-founded by Amory Lovins dedicated to research, publication, consulting, and lecturing in the field of sustainability, with a focus on profitable innovations for energy an ...
.
He has written on
energy policy
Energy policy is the manner in which a given entity (often governmental) has decided to address issues of energy development including energy conversion, distribution and use as well as reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in order to contri ...
and related areas for four decades, and served on the
US National Petroleum Council, an oil industry lobbying group, from 2011 to 2018.
Lovins has promoted
energy efficiency
Energy efficiency may refer to:
* Energy efficiency (physics), the ratio between the useful output and input of an energy conversion process
** Electrical efficiency, useful power output per electrical power consumed
** Mechanical efficiency, a ra ...
, the use of
renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
sources, and the generation of energy at or near the site where the energy is actually used. Lovins has also advocated a "
negawatt
A negawatt market is a proposed idea of implementation of the demand response (Grid balancing, balancing the electrical grid through the changes in consumption) that uses an energy market where the commodity traded is a ''negawatt-hour'', a unit ...
revolution" arguing that utility customers don't want
kilowatt-hours
A kilowatt-hour (unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. In terms of SI derived units with special names, it equals 3.6 megajoules (MJ). Kilowatt-hours are a common bil ...
of electricity; they want energy services. In the 1990s, his work with
Rocky Mountain Institute
RMI (Rocky Mountain Institute) is an organization in the United States co-founded by Amory Lovins dedicated to research, publication, consulting, and lecturing in the field of sustainability, with a focus on profitable innovations for energy an ...
included the design of an ultra-efficient automobile, the
Hypercar. He has provided expert testimony and published 31 books, including ''
Reinventing Fire
''Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era'' is a 2011 book, by Amory B. Lovins and the Rocky Mountain Institute, that explores converting the United States to almost total reliance on renewable energy sources, such as sol ...
'', ''
Winning the Oil Endgame
''Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs and Security'' is a 2005 book by Amory B. Lovins, E. Kyle Datta, Odd-Even Bustnes, Jonathan G. Koomey, and Nathan J. Glasgow, published by the Rocky Mountain Institute. It presents an indep ...
'', ''
Small is Profitable'', ''
Brittle Power
''Brittle Power: Energy Strategy for National Security'' is a 1982 book by Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins, prepared originally as a Pentagon study and re-released in 2001 following the September 11 attacks. The book argues that the U.S. dom ...
'', and ''
Natural Capitalism
''Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution'' is a 1999 book on environmental economics co-authored by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and Hunter Lovins. It has been translated into a dozen languages and was the subject of a Harvard B ...
''.
Early life and education
Lovins was born in
Washington, DC
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...
. His father, Gerald H. Lovins worked as an engineer and his mother, Miriam Lovins, worked as a social services administrator. Lovins is the brother of
Julie Beth Lovins
Julie Beth Lovins (October 19, 1945, in Washington, D.C. – January 26, 2018, in Mountain View, California) was a Computational linguistics, computational linguist who published the The Lovins Stemming Algorithm - a type of stemming algorithmfor w ...
, a
computational linguist
Computational linguistics is an interdisciplinary field concerned with the computational modelling of natural language, as well as the study of appropriate computational approaches to linguistic questions. In general, computational linguistics ...
who wrote the first
stemming
In linguistic morphology and information retrieval, stemming is the process of reducing inflected (or sometimes derived) words to their word stem, base or root form—generally a written word form. The stem need not be identical to the morpholog ...
algorithm for word matching.
In 1964, Lovins entered
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
as a
National Merit Scholar
The National Merit Scholarship Program is a United States academic scholarship competition for recognition and university scholarships administered by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a privately funded, not-for-profit organizati ...
. After two years there, he transferred to
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
.
In 1969, he became a junior research fellow at
Merton College, Oxford
Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the Colleges of Oxford University, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the ...
, as a result of which he had a temporary
Oxford master of arts status. He left without a degree in 1971, because the university would not allow him to pursue a doctorate in energy.
Lovins moved to London to pursue his energy work, and returned to the United States in 1981. He settled in western Colorado in 1982.
[Lovins Bio]
Lovins' four grandparents emigrated to the United States from small villages lying between
Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
and
Odessa
Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
in
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
in the early 20thcentury.
[
] Most of his remaining family are believed to have been killed by German
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
in the 1941
Tarashcha
Tarashcha or Tarascha ( uk, Тараща, yi, טאַראַשטשע) is a city in Bila Tserkva Raion, Kyiv Oblast (region) in central Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Tarashcha urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: .
...
massacre.
Work
Friends of the Earth
Each summer from 1965 to 1981, Lovins guided mountaineering trips and photographed the
White Mountains of
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
, contributing photographs to ''At Home in the Wild: New England's White Mountains''. In 1971, he wrote about Wales' endangered
Snowdonia National Park
Snowdonia or Eryri (), is a mountainous region in northwestern Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three national parks in Wales, in 1951.
Name and extent
It was a commonly held belief that the nam ...
in the book, ''Eryri, the Mountains of Longing'', commissioned by
David Brower
David Ross Brower (; July 1, 1912 – November 5, 2000) was a prominent environmentalist and the founder of many environmental organizations, including the John Muir Institute for Environmental Studies (1997), Friends of the Earth (1969), Eart ...
, president of
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of environmental organizations in 73 countries. The organization was founded in 1969 in San Francisco by David Brower, Donald Aitken and Gary Soucie after Brower's split with ...
.
[Profile of the 2007 Blue Planet Prize Recipient]
Lovins spent about a decade as British representative for Friends of the Earth.
During the early 1970s, Lovins became interested in resource policy, especially
energy policy
Energy policy is the manner in which a given entity (often governmental) has decided to address issues of energy development including energy conversion, distribution and use as well as reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in order to contri ...
. The
1973 energy crisis
The 1973 oil crisis or first oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations that had supp ...
helped create an audience for his writing and an essay originally penned as a U.N. paper grew into his first book concerned with energy, ''World Energy Strategies'' (1973). His next book was ''
Non-Nuclear Futures: The Case for an Ethical Energy Strategy'' (1975), co-authored with John H. Price.
Rocky Mountain Institute
By 1978, Lovins had published six books and consulted widely. In 1982, he and his wife,
Hunter Lovins
L. Hunter Lovins (née Sheldon, born February 26, 1950 in Middlebury, Vermont) is an American environmentalist, author, sustainable development proponent, co-founder of Rocky Mountain Institute, and president of the nonprofit organization Natural ...
founded
Rocky Mountain Institute
RMI (Rocky Mountain Institute) is an organization in the United States co-founded by Amory Lovins dedicated to research, publication, consulting, and lecturing in the field of sustainability, with a focus on profitable innovations for energy an ...
, based in
Snowmass, Colorado
Snowmass (sometimes known locally as Old Snowmass) is an unincorporated community and a U.S. Post Office located in Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. It is situated in the valley of the Roaring Fork River, near the mouth of Snowmass Creek ...
. Together with a group of colleagues, the Lovinses fostered efficient resource use and
sustainable development
Sustainable development is an organizing principle for meeting human development goals while also sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services on which the economy and society depend. The des ...
.
Lovins clients have included many
''Fortune'' 500 companies, real-estate developers, and utilities.
Public-sector clients have included the
OECD
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...
,
UN, Resources for the Future, many national governments, and 13 US states.
Lovins served in 1980 and 1981 on the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Research Advisory Board, and from 1999 to 2001 and 2006 to 2008 on
Defense Science Board
The Defense Science Board (DSB) is a committee of civilian experts appointed to advise the U.S. Department of Defense on scientific and technical matters. It was established in 1956 on the recommendation of the second Hoover Commission.
Charter
...
task forces on military energy efficiency and strategy. His visiting academic chairs most recently included a visiting professorship in Stanford University's School of Engineering.
Since 1982, RMI has grown into a broad-based "think-and-do tank" with more than 85 staff and an annual budget of some $13 million.
RMI has spun off five for-profit companies.
Ideas
Soft energy paths
![Solar heater dsc00632](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Solar_heater_dsc00632.jpg)
Amory Lovins published an article in ''
Foreign Affairs
''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership organization and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and ...
'' called "Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken?" in 1976. Lovins argued that the United States had arrived at an important crossroads and could take one of two paths.
The first, supported by U.S. policy, promised a future of steadily increasing reliance on
fossil fuel
A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels m ...
s and
nuclear fission
Nuclear fission is a reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei. The fission process often produces gamma photons, and releases a very large amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radio ...
, and had serious environmental risks. The alternative, which Lovins called "the soft path", favored "benign" sources of renewable energy like
wind power
Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to electricity generation, generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable energy, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller Environmental impact of wi ...
and
solar power
Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic e ...
, along with a heightened commitment to energy conservation and energy efficiency. In October 1977, ''
The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'' ran a cover story on Lovins' ideas.
Residential solar energy technologies are prime examples of soft energy technologies and rapid deployment of simple, energy conserving, residential solar energy technologies is fundamental to a soft energy strategy.
Lovins has described the "hard energy path" as involving inefficient energy use and centralized, non-renewable energy sources such as
fossil fuels
A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels ...
. He believes soft path impacts are more "gentle, pleasant and manageable," than hard path impacts. These impacts range from the individual and household level to those affecting the very fabric of society at the national and international level.
[Amory Lovins (1977). ''Soft Energy Paths: Towards a Durable Peace'' ]
''Lovins on the Soft Path'' is a
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
made by Amory and Hunter Lovins. It received "Best Science and Technology Film,
San Francisco International Film Festival
The San Francisco International Film Festival (abbreviated as SFIFF), organized by the San Francisco Film Society, is held each spring for two weeks, presenting around 200 films from over 50 countries. The festival highlights current trends in in ...
, 1983; Blue Ribbon,
American Film Festival
American Film Festival is a film festival held annually in October in Wrocław, Poland. The first festival was held from 20 to 24 October 2010. The festival is organized by Stowarzyszenie Nowe Horyzonty and co-funded by the Wroclaw Municipality a ...
, 1982; Best of the Festival, Environmental Education Film Festival, 1982; Best Energy Film, International Environmental Film Festival, 1982; and Chris Bronze Plaque, Columbus International Film Festival, 1982."
Nuclear power limitations
Lovins wrote that nuclear power plants are
intermittent
Intermittency is a behavior of dynamical systems: regular alternation of phases of apparently periodic and chaotic dynamics.
Intermittent or intermittency may also refer to:
*Intermittent river or stream, the one that ceases to flow every year or ...
in that they will sometimes fail unexpectedly, often for long periods of time.
For example, in the United States, 132 nuclear plants were built, and 21% were permanently and prematurely closed due to reliability or cost problems, while another 27% have at least once completely failed for a year or more. The remaining U.S. nuclear plants produce approximately 90% of their full-time full-load potential, but even they must shut down (on average) for about 1 out of each 18 months for scheduled refueling and maintenance.
To cope with such intermittence by nuclear (and centralized fossil-fueled) power plants, utilities install a "reserve margin" of roughly 15% extra capacity spinning ready for instant use.
Lovins also argues that nuclear plants have an additional disadvantage: for safety, they must instantly shut down in a power failure, but due to the inherent nuclear-physics of the systems, they can't be restarted quickly. For example, during the
Northeast Blackout of 2003
The Northeast blackout of 2003 was a widespread power outage throughout parts of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States, and most parts of the Canadian province of Ontario on Thursday, August 14, 2003, beginning just after 4:10 p.m. ...
, nine operating U.S. nuclear units had to shut down temporarily. During the first three days after restarting, their output was less than 3% of normal. After twelve days of restart, their average capacity loss had exceeded 50 percent.
Lovins provided his general assessment of nuclear power in a 2011 ''Huffington Post'' article, saying that "Nuclear power is the only energy source where mishap or malice can kill so many people so far away; the only one whose ingredients can help make and hide nuclear bombs; the only climate solution that substitutes proliferation, accident, and high-level radioactive waste dangers. Indeed, nuclear plants are so slow and costly to build that they reduce and retard climate protection". With respect to the
2011 Japanese nuclear accidents
The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 and ...
, Lovins wrote: "An earthquake-and-tsunami zone crowded with 127 million people is an unwise place for 54 reactors".
Regarding nuclear power in the United Kingdom, Amory Lovins commented in 2014 that:
Britain's plan for a fleet of new nuclear power stations is ... unbelievable ... It is economically daft. The guaranteed price eing offered to French state company EDFis over seven times the unsubsidized price of new wind in the US, four or five times the unsubsidized price of new solar power in the US. Nuclear prices only go up. Renewable energy prices come down. There is absolutely no business case for nuclear. The British policy has nothing to do with economic or any other rational base for decision making.
Negawatt revolution
![Energiesparlampe 01 retouched](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Energiesparlampe_01_retouched.jpg)
A
negawatt
A negawatt market is a proposed idea of implementation of the demand response (Grid balancing, balancing the electrical grid through the changes in consumption) that uses an energy market where the commodity traded is a ''negawatt-hour'', a unit ...
is a unit in watts of power saved. It is basically the opposite of a
watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...
. Amory Lovins has advocated a "negawatt revolution", arguing that utility customers don't want
kilowatt-hours
A kilowatt-hour (unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. In terms of SI derived units with special names, it equals 3.6 megajoules (MJ). Kilowatt-hours are a common bil ...
of electricity; they want energy services such as hot showers, cold beer, lit rooms, and spinning shafts, which can come more cheaply if electricity is used more efficiently.
[Amory B. Lovins]
The Negawatt Revolution
''Across the Board'', Vol. XXVII No. 9, September 1990, pp. 21–22.
Hypercar
In 1994, Amory Lovins developed the design concept of the
Hypercar. This vehicle would have ultra-light construction with an
aerodynamic
Aerodynamics, from grc, ἀήρ ''aero'' (air) + grc, δυναμική (dynamics), is the study of the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dyn ...
body using advanced
composite material
A composite material (also called a composition material or shortened to composite, which is the common name) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or ...
s, low-
drag design, and
hybrid drive
In computing, a hybrid drive (solid state hybrid drive – SSHD) is a logical or physical storage device that combines a faster storage medium such as solid-state drive (SSD) with a higher-capacity hard disk drive (HDD). The intent is adding s ...
. Designers of the Hypercar claim that it would achieve a three- to fivefold improvement in
fuel economy, equal or better performance, safety, amenity, and affordability, compared with today's
cars
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods.
The year 1886 is regarded as t ...
.
In 1999, RMI took this process a step further by launching a for-profit venture, Hypercar Inc. in which RMI has a minority interest.
[What is a Hypercar Vehicle?]
from Hypercar.com In 2004, Hypercar Inc. changed its name to
Fiberforge
Fiberforge was a privately held company, started in 1998. The company uses a proprietary process for making thermoplastic advanced composites to make things more lightweight. Particular interest has been placed on decreasing weight of everyday mea ...
to better reflect the company's new goal of lowering the cost of high-volume advanced-composite structures by leveraging the patents of David F. Taggart, one of the founders of Hypercar, Inc.
Lovins says the commercialization of the Hypercar began in 2014, with the production of the all-carbon electric
BMW i3
The BMW i3 is a B-segment, high-roof hatchback manufactured and marketed by BMW with an electric powertrain using rear-wheel drive via a single-speed transmission and an underfloor Lithium-ion battery, lithium-ion battery pack and an optional R ...
family and the 313 miles per gallon
Volkswagen XL1
The Volkswagen XL1 (VW 1-litre) is a two-person limited production diesel-powered plug-in hybrid produced by Volkswagen. The XL1 car was designed to be able to travel 100 km on 1 litre of diesel (), while being both roadworthy and practical ...
.
Citizen participation
Lovins does not see his energy ideas as green or left-wing, and he is an advocate of
private enterprise
A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...
and
free market economics
Free may refer to:
Concept
* Freedom, having the ability to do something, without having to obey anyone/anything
* Freethought, a position that beliefs should be formed only on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism
* Emancipate, to proc ...
. He notes that
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
has made News Corporation carbon-neutral, with savings of millions of dollars. But, says Lovins, large institutions are becoming more "gridlocked and moribund", and he supports the rise of "citizen organizations" around the world.
Paul Hawken
Paul Gerard Hawken (born February 8, 1946) is an American environmentalist, entrepreneur, author, economist, and activist.
Biography
Hawken was born in San Mateo, California, and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, where his father worked at ...
's ''Blessed Unrest
''Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming'' is a 2007 ''New York Times'' bestseller by Paul Hawken. The book is about the many non-profit groups and community organizations, dedicated t ...
'' chronicles the rise of millions of non-profit citizen organizations around the world — the greatest social movement
A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to resist or undo one. It is a type of group action and may ...
in history. As central institutions become more gridlocked and moribund, a new vitality is beginning to spread renewal through the stem to the flower.
Criticism
Institutions and energy specialists have criticized various positions taken by Amory Lovins. One of the main points of contention is the assumption by the RMI of a linear relation between improvements in energy efficiency and reductions in aggregate energy consumption.
The
Jevons Paradox
In economics, the Jevons paradox (; sometimes Jevons effect) occurs when technological progress or government policy increases the efficiency with which a resource is used (reducing the amount necessary for any one use), but the falling cost o ...
suggests that improvements in energy efficiency actually lead to an increase in energy use, as a result of decreasing cost. This "rebound effect" is downplayed in the analyses performed by Lovins.
Other assumptions made by Lovins have also received criticism. For example, in Lovins' book, Reinventing Fire, it is assumed that 50% of all electricity in the US could come from wind in 2050. Other authors find that this is capped probably around 30%. Similar overestimates are identified in PV (solar), where estimates are made for about 30%; this is seen as implausible. Moreover, according to the authors, no analyses are given about the need for huge volumes of electricity storage, which would be needed when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow.
Awards
Amory Lovins was elected a Fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
in 1984, of the
World Academy of Art and Science
The World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS), founded in 1960, is an international non-governmental scientific organization and global network of more than 800 scientists, artists, and scholars in more than 90 countries.
It serves as a forum for s ...
in 1988, and of the World Business Academy in 2001. He has received the
Right Livelihood Award
The Right Livelihood Award is an international award to "honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today." The prize was established in 1980 by German-Swedish philanthropist Jakob v ...
, the
Blue Planet Prize
The recognises outstanding efforts in scientific research or applications of science that contribute to solving global environmental problems. The prize was created by the Asahi Glass Foundation in 1992, the year of the Rio Earth Summit, and ...
,
Volvo Environment Prize
The Volvo Environment Prize is an annual international award originating in Sweden. The prize is awarded to individuals who "''explore the way to a sustainable world''." The prize is awarded by the independent foundation ''The Volvo Environment P ...
, the 4th Annual
Heinz Award
The Heinz Awards are individual achievement honors given annually by the Heinz Family Foundation. The Heinz Awards each year recognize outstanding individuals for their innovative contributions in three areas: the Arts, the Economy and the Enviro ...
in the Environment in 1998, and the National Design (Design Mind), Jean Meyer, and Lindbergh Awards.
Lovins is also the recipient of the ''Time''
Hero for the Planet awards, the Benjamin Franklin and Happold Medals, and the Shingo, Nissan, Mitchell, and Onassis Prizes. He received a
MacArthur Fellowship
The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to ...
in 1993, and is an honorary member of the
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...
(AIA), a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, and an Honorary Senior Fellow of the
Design Futures Council
The Design Futures Council is an interdisciplinary network of design, product, and construction leaders exploring global trends, challenges, and opportunities to advance innovation and shape the future of the industry and environment. Members inclu ...
.
He is on the Advisory Board of the
Holcim Foundation.
In 2009, ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' magazine named Lovins as one of the world's 100 most influential people.
On March 17, 2016, Lovins received the
Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse (Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit) from the
Federal Republic of Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...
for intellectually underpinning Germany's
Energiewende
The ''Energiewende'' (; ) is the ongoing transition by Germany to a low carbon, environmentally sound, reliable, and affordable energy supply. The new system intends to rely heavily on renewable energy (particularly wind, photovoltaics, and ...
, most notably with his concept of "soft energy" and how that promotes peace and prosperity.
Lovins was a senior
Ashoka Fellow
Ashoka (formerly branded Ashoka: Innovators for the Public) is an American-based nonprofit organization that promotes social entrepreneurship by connecting and supporting individual social entrepreneurs. Their stated mission is "the creation of a ...
in 2009.
Personal life
In 1979 Amory Lovins married
L. Hunter Sheldon, a lawyer, forester, and social scientist. They separated in 1989 and divorced in 1999.
Iconoclast Gets Consultant Fees To Tell Big Oil It's Fading Fast
/ref> In 2007, he married Judy Hill, a fine-art landscape photographer.
Books
This is a list of books which are authored or co-authored by Amory B. Lovins:[''The International Who's Who 2011'', 74th edition, Routledge, 2010, p. 1259.]
* ''World Energy Strategies: Facts, Issues, and Options'' London : Friends of the Earth Ltd. for Earth Resources Research Ltd., 1975. .
* ''The Energy Controversy: Soft Path Questions and Answers'' (1979)
* '' Non-Nuclear Futures: The Case for an Ethical Energy Strategy'' (with John H. Price) San Francisco, 1980.
* ''Least-Cost Energy: Solving the CO2 Problem'' Andover, Mass. : Brick House Pub. Co., 1982
* ''Brittle Power
''Brittle Power: Energy Strategy for National Security'' is a 1982 book by Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins, prepared originally as a Pentagon study and re-released in 2001 following the September 11 attacks. The book argues that the U.S. dom ...
'': Energy Strategy for National Security (with L Hunter Lovins) Andover, Mass. : Brick House, 1982 re-released in 2001.
* ''The First Nuclear World War'' (with Patrick O'Heffernan; L Hunter Lovins) New York : Morrow, 1983.
* ''Reinventing Electric Utilities: Competition, Citizen Action, and Clean Power'' (1996)
* ''Factor Four: Doubling Wealth – Halving Resource Use: A Report to the Club of Rome'' (1997)
* ''Natural Capitalism
''Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution'' is a 1999 book on environmental economics co-authored by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and Hunter Lovins. It has been translated into a dozen languages and was the subject of a Harvard B ...
'' (2000)
* '' Small Is Profitable'' (2003)
* ''The Natural Advantage Of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation And Governance in the 21st Century'' (2004)
* ''Let the Mountains Talk, Let the Rivers Run: A Call to Save the Earth'' (2007)
Non-English
* ''Faktor vier. Doppelter Wohlstand – halbierter Verbrauch'' (1997)
* ''Facteur 4: Rapport au Club de Rome'' (1997)
* ''Öko-Kapitalismus: Die industrielle Revolution des 21. Jahrhunderts'' (2002)
See also
* Anti-nuclear movement in the United States
The anti-nuclear movement in the United States consists of more than 80 anti-nuclear groups that oppose nuclear power, nuclear weapons, and/or uranium mining. These have included the Abalone Alliance, Clamshell Alliance, Committee for Nuclear Re ...
* Energy security and renewable technology The environmental benefits of renewable energy technologies are widely recognised, but the contribution that they can make to energy security is less well known. Renewable technologies can enhance energy security in electricity generation, heat sup ...
* Hermann Scheer
Hermann Scheer (29 April 1944 – 14 October 2010) was a Social Democrat member of the German Bundestag (parliament), President of Eurosolar (European Association for Renewable Energy) and General Chairman of the World Council for Renewable Ene ...
* Mark Z. Jacobson
Mark Zachary Jacobson (born 1965) is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and director of its Atmosphere/Energy Program. He is also a co-founder of the non-profit, Solutions Project.
Jacobson's career has focus ...
* Renewable energy commercialization
Renewable energy commercialization involves the deployment of three generations of renewable energy technologies dating back more than 100 years. First-generation technologies, which are already mature and economically competitive, include b ...
References
External links
The Rocky Mountain Institute's home page
The frugal cornucopian
Amory Lovin's presentation
to th
Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue 2016
March 17–18, 2016
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lovins, Amory
1947 births
Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford
American business writers
American environmentalists
American non-fiction environmental writers
21st-century American physicists
Appropriate technology advocates
Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford
Harvard College alumni
Living people
MacArthur Fellows
People associated with energy
Renewable energy commercialization
American anti–nuclear power activists
Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany