RMI (Rocky Mountain Institute) is an organization in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
co-founded by
Amory Lovins
Amory Bloch Lovins (born November 13, 1947) is an American writer, physicist, and former chairman/chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has written on energy policy and related areas for four decades, and served on the US Nationa ...
dedicated to research, publication, consulting, and lecturing in the field of
sustainability, with a focus on profitable innovations for
energy and resource efficiency. RMI was established in 1982 and has grown into a broad-based institution with 550+ staff and an annual budget of $120+ million. RMI's work is independent and non-adversarial, with an emphasis on market-based solutions.
The institute, which includes the
Carbon War Room (which merged with RMI in December 2014), operates many global programs.
RMI is headquartered in
Basalt, Colorado
The Town of Basalt is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality located in Eagle County, Colorado, Eagle and Pitkin County, Colorado, Pitkin List of counties in Colorado, counties, Colorado, United State ...
, and also maintains offices in
Boulder, Colorado, New York City, Washington D.C., Oakland, California and Beijing, China.
History
By 1978, experimental physicist
Amory Lovins
Amory Bloch Lovins (born November 13, 1947) is an American writer, physicist, and former chairman/chief scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has written on energy policy and related areas for four decades, and served on the US Nationa ...
had published many books, consulted widely, and was active in energy affairs in some fifteen countries as a synthesist and lobbyist. Lovins is the leading proponent of the
soft energy path
In 1976, energy policy analyst Amory Lovins coined the term soft energy path to describe an alternative future where energy efficiency and appropriate renewable energy sources steadily replace a centralized energy system based on fossil and nucle ...
.
Later in 1979, Lovins married
L. Hunter Sheldon, a lawyer, forester, and social scientist. Hunter received her undergraduate degree in
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
and
political
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...
studies from
Pitzer College, and her
J.D. from
Loyola Marymount's
School of Law
A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction.
Law degrees Argentina
In Argentina, l ...
. In 1982, Amory and Hunter founded Rocky Mountain Institute, based in Colorado. Together with a group of colleagues, the Lovinses fostered efficient resource use and policy development that they believed would promote global security. RMI ultimately grew into an organization with a staff of around fifty. By the mid-1980s, the Lovinses were featured on major network TV programs, such as ''
60 Minutes''.
At RMI's headquarters the south-facing building complex is so energy-efficient that, even with local -40 °F (-40 °C) winter temperatures, the building interiors can maintain a comfortable temperature solely from the sunlight admitted plus the body heat of the people who work there. The environment can actually nurture semi-tropical and tropical indoor plants.
The Lovins described the "hard energy path" as involving inefficient liquid-fuel automotive transport, as well as giant centralized electricity-generating facilities, often burning
fossil fuels such as
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when ...
or
petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...
, or harnessing a
fission reaction, greatly complicated by electricity wastage and loss. The "soft energy path" which they wholly preferred involves efficient use of energy, diversity of energy production methods (and matched in scale and quality to end uses), and special reliance on "soft technologies" (alternative technology) such as
solar,
wind
Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few ho ...
,
biofuels, and
geothermal. According to the institute, large-scale electricity production facilities had an important place, but it was a place that they were already filling in the middle 1970s; in general, more would not be needed. In a 1989 speech, Amory Lovins introduced the related concept of
Negawatt power, in which creating a market for trading increased efficiency could supply additional electrical energy to consumers without increasing generation capacity—such as building more power plants.
In recent years, RMI has convened a team of designers and engineers to develop a super-efficient prototype automobile, which they've dubbed the
Hypercar.
In December 2014, RMI merged with
Carbon War Room, an organization with similar goals but a different approach.
In June 2017, RMI merged with WattTime, an organization providing real-time power plant data to consumer devices for automatic dispatchable power consumption.
Programs
RMI operates programs in many countries:
* Carbon-Free Electricity
* Carbon-Free Buildings
* Carbon-Free Mobility
* Climate-Aligned Industries
* Breakthrough Technologies
* Climate Intelligence
* Urban Transformation
* Strategic Analysis & Engagement
* Global South
* China Program
* India Program
* US Program.
Electric vehicles
In January 2008, led by John E. Waters,
Bright Automotive
Bright Automotive was a startup company in Anderson, Indiana, working to create a fuel-efficient line of plug-in electric vehicles.Fehrenbacher, Katie. "The First Investment from GM's VC Arm: Bright Automotive: Cleantech News and Analysis «." ...
launched from RMI with the goal of building on the work of a consortium of organizations, including
Alcoa,
Google.org
Google.org, founded in October 2005, is the charitable arm of Google, a multinational technology company. The organization has committed roughly US$100 million in investments and grants to nonprofits annually.
The organization is noted for se ...
,
Johnson Controls
Johnson Controls International is an American
Irish-domiciled multinational conglomerate headquartered in Cork, Ireland, that produces fire, HVAC, and security equipment for buildings. As of mid-2019, it employed 105,000 people in around 2,00 ...
and the
Turner Foundation.
Bright Automotive sought with its Bright IDEA project to develop a brand new,
plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV)
fleet vehicle. It launched
Bright eSolutions to consult on engineering, design,
powertrain
A drivetrain (also frequently spelled as drive train or sometimes drive-train) is the group of components that deliver mechanical power from the prime mover to the driven components. In automotive engineering, the drivetrain is the components o ...
, battery technology and
plug-in hybrid conversion technology services. Bright Automotive secured a conversion contract with the
U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (
TACOM
The United States Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM), and its subordinate Life Cycle Management Command (LCMC), ) to convert military non-combat vehicles into a parallel
PHEV
A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is a hybrid electric vehicle whose battery pack can be recharged by plugging a charging cable into an external electric power source, in addition to internally by its on-board internal combustion engin ...
for evaluation, including
V2G testing. The venture failed.
Advanced Energy, in partnership with RMI, announced a
Request for Information (RFI) for Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) specific to charging stations for
plug-in electric vehicle
A plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) is any road vehicle that can utilize an external source of electricity (such as a wall socket that connects to the power grid) to store electrical power within its onboard rechargeable battery packs, which then ...
s (EV).
Books
Books published by RMI include:
*''
Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profit, Jobs and Security'' (2005)
Available Online in PDF
*''
Small is Profitable: The Hidden Economic Benefits of Making Electrical Resources the Right Size'' (2003)
*''
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 ...
: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution'' (2000)
*''
Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era'' (2011) .
Recognition
Co-founder Amory Lovins received many awards.
See also
*
Association négaWatt
*
E. Kyle Datta
*
Negawatt power
*
Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle
*
Soft energy path
In 1976, energy policy analyst Amory Lovins coined the term soft energy path to describe an alternative future where energy efficiency and appropriate renewable energy sources steadily replace a centralized energy system based on fossil and nucle ...
*
Soft energy technology
*
Transition town
The terms transition town, transition initiative and transition model refer to grassroot community projects that aim to increase self-sufficiency to reduce the potential effects of peak oil, climate destruction, and economic instabilitythrough r ...
References
External links
RMIYouTube channel
{{Authority control
Climate change organizations based in the United States
Energy policy
Sustainability organizations
Renewable energy organizations based in the United States
Environmental organizations based in Colorado