The Einstein of Energy Efficiency - Ep68: Amory Lovins

Cleaning Up. Leadership in an age of climate change.

Amory Lovins is Cofounder and Chairman Emeritus of the Rocky Mountain Institute. Apart from co-founding the Institute in 1982 he served as its Chief Scientist between 2007 and 2019.

Amory is a an author of 31 books and more than 700 papers, he has advised major firms and governments on energy in over 70 countries for more than 45 years.

He has taught at ten universities, most recently the Naval Postgraduate School (Professor of Practice 2011–17) and Stanford University, where he’s currently Adjunct Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a Scholar of the Precourt Institute for Energy—but only teaching topics he’s never formally studied, so as to retain beginner’s mind. He served in 2011–18 on the National Petroleum Council and has advised the US Departments of Energy and Defense.

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).

Further reading:

IEA Energy Efficiency 2021 report:

https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-efficiency-2021

Official bio:

https://rmi.org/people/amory-lovins/

How Big Is the Energy Efficiency Resource? (a half-hour summary talk is at https://energy.stanford.edu/events/special-energy-seminar-amory-lovins-holmes-hummel)

https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aad965

Recalibrating Climate Prospects

https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab55ab

Can a Virus and Viral Ideas Speed the World’s Journey Beyond Fossil Fuels? (with Kingsmill Bond)

https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abc3f2

SAE: Reframing Automotive Fuel Efficiency

https://doi.org/10.4271/13-01-01-0004