SUMMER 2017 VOL. 10 NO. 1 M OUN KY T C A I O N R I N E PLUS: AMORY’S ANGLE, RMI’S STIT U T INNOVATION CENTER, AND MORE RMI_SJmag_01_cover_v3a.indd 1 5/30/17 2:26 PM TABLE OF CONTENTS SUMMER 2017 /VOL. 10 NO. 1 SOLUTIONS PIPELINE THE GRADUATES TRANSPORTATION TRAILBLAZER 35 AUDACIOUS IDEAS PAYING IT FORWARD MODERNIZING MOBILITY IN INDIA A selection of projects and concepts from around the institute destined to change the future of energy Alumni amplify RMI’s mission as they A recent charrette jump-starts the 30 country’s move toward a 100 percent 12 24 advance their careers electric mobility future Table of Contents Table 1 Summer 2017 COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS CEO LETTER RMI IN BRIEF WALK THE WALK THE PAST IS PROLOGUE: 35 YEARS NEWS FROM AROUND THE INSTITUTE SPEAKING UP FOR OUR FUTURE: A Our Printing and Paper OF IMPACT HAVE SET THE STAGE DIGITAL NATIVE EXPANDS THE ONLINE This issue of Solutions Journal is printed on elemental 02 CONVERSATION ABOUT THE ENERGY chlorine-free paper. Specifically, it is #2 FSC-certified FOR ACCELERATING THE ENERGY 09 36 REVOLUTION TRANSFORMATION CPC Matte Book and FSC-certified CPC Matter Cover, Sappi Papers in Minnesota, sourced from SFI- certified pulp. Using certified paper products promotes environmentally appropriate and economically viable AMORY’S ANGLE QUESTION & ANSWER RMI RELICS management of the world’s forests. TAKING STOCK: 35 YEARS OF AMPLIFIED IMPACT: SIR RICHARD FROM THE ARCHIVES: SOME INFLUENCE…AND COUNTING BRANSON ON RMI’S EVOLUTION AND ARTIFACTS FROM RMI’S RICH HISTORY 04 10 CLEAN ENERGY 38 Staff Editorial Director – Cindie Baker Writer/Editor – Laurie Guevara-Stone Writer/Editor – David Labrador : left, iStock.com; middle, ©Rocky Mountain Institute; right, courtsesy of Ralf Steinberger, colors changed colors Steinberger, ©Rocky Institute; right, courtsesy Ralf Mountain middle, of left, : iStock.com; Creative Director – Romy Purshouse Designer – Marijke Jongbloed PHOTOS CEO LETTER THE PAST IS PROLOGUE 35 years of impact have set the stage for accelerating the energy revolution By Jules Kortenhorst his April marked the 35th anniversary energy 32 percent more efficiently than 25 years of Rocky Mountain Institute’s founding earlier, even while the world economy more than in 1982. As I survey the past three and doubled in size, according to the U.S. Energy Thalf decades and try to peer as far into the future, Information Administration. And globally, I am filled with amazement at how far the energy renewables have been the leading new energy transformation has come, with urgency because source for two years in a row, at decreasing cost. of how much it is now needed, and with Sometimes we identify a new technology or support of its mobility transformation—another LEED-certified optimism about the gathering strength of the At RMI, we know that when markets lead, policy solution to apply to energy, like the blockchain feature story in this issue. buildings like energy revolution. While it is true that the and politics follow. Last year’s historic Paris technology that underlies the bitcoin digital this one (center) current U.S. federal government administration Agreement is a thrilling development, but the currency, which has the potential to transform So RMI moves out into the world, and forward in Manhattan’s is not leading the effort to transform the world vanguard of the energy transformation to the way distributed energy technologies like into the future, with resolve that our task is both financial district economy to a low-carbon, resilient, and renewables and efficiency will continue to be rooftop solar and demand response can be an urgent and a vital one, and with hope that our have become sustainable future, the transition is now global, market based. That is why I’m confident that orchestrated and compensated. efforts, with your help, will meet the challenge. business as usual. In this child’s widely supported, increasingly cost-effective, together, we can avert catastrophic climate Our theory of change begins with you, and lifetime, wind and therefore irreversible. change and achieve a clean, prosperous, and Sometimes markets, or individual market actors, supporters like you. Your support over the past 35 turbines became secure low-carbon future. develop transformative technologies but don’t years helped us to find solutions, pioneer and CEO Letter cost competitive Look at what markets, aided by pioneers like have the long-term view or immediate incentives pilot new energy approaches, and collaborate 2 with fossil fuels. RMI, have achieved. In 2015, the world used to see how they can work together to effect with diverse partners. And those partners— 3 LOOKING BACKWARD AND FORWARD change that is more than the sum of its parts. Our public and private, for-profit and academic, In this issue of Solutions Journal, Amory takes work with the city of Austin, Texas, to pioneer a foreign and domestic—helped us to bring our stock of Rocky Mountain Institute’s influence on complete mobility ecosystem that will build solutions and our approaches to global scale, so the mobility, buildings, electricity, and many toward electric, autonomous Mobility as a Service that what was merely a gleam in Amory’s eye 35 other industries over the past 35 years. And Sir is an example of our whole-systems view. years ago is now rolling off production lines from Summer 2017 Richard Branson describes how RMI’s agility has Stuttgart to Detroit. With your help, the future been enhanced by the bold, entrepreneurial And sometimes markets just don’t extend far belongs to clean, renewable, efficient, cost- legacy of Carbon War Room, which merged with enough, and so RMI takes action. Solar energy is effective energy. I know the best is yet to come. and now operates as part of RMI, weaving the cheaper than ever, but it takes bold intervention innovative carbon reductions that are its to see that it reaches the populations that can hallmark into our DNA. benefit most from it—another project you’ll read Jules Kortenhorst about in these pages. is chief executive But the urgency of the present moment does not officer of Rocky allow us to rest on our laurels; the planet’s Mountain Institute. climate is at a crisis, which is why the past is SHAPING THE FUTURE merely a prologue to what we must do now, and As I look to the next 35 years, I see with in the future. excitement the work that RMI is carrying out in GET INVOLVED China, where we are helping with a vast and Philanthropic support makes RMI’s work possible. Join us by In our main feature article, “35 Audacious Ideas,” ambitious energy transition, and I see with making a donation today to help create a clean, prosperous, and you will read about dozens of ways we are working growing confidence our initial work on mobility secure low-carbon future. to accelerate and deepen our impact on the energy in India. Although our work there is just transition. Some are achievements of the present beginning, our collaboration with the Give an unrestricted gift or target your gift to support an RMI moment, whereas others are very ambitious—but government and business leaders of that nation project that addresses your passion. attainable—plans for the future. And the projects has been tremendously encouraging, and India’s : left, iStock.com; top,courtesy of Harvey Barrison of top,courtesy left, : iStock.com; show how our intervention model works to unlock enormous strength in information technology WWW.RMI.ORG/DONATE markets in all sorts of ways. PHOTO and mastery of innovation promise much for our AMORY’S ANGLE development. Leaving those aside, I recount here the North American trucking industry’s leading some highlights of how our energy-centric efforts efficiency program, and identified a pathway for TAKING STOCK have already achieved more than I’d imagined. China to halve empty truck hauls. We helped lead the military revolution in mobility-platform 35 Years of Influence…and Counting efficiency and wrote the Pentagon’s roadmap to MOBILITY oil-free security. We helped the aviation industry By Amory B. Lovins RMI laid the foundations for, and continues to begin its path off oil. We drove the shift toward drive, today’s emerging transformation in how efficient marine shipping via market his year, as Rocky Mountain Institute Those bets proved correct, served us well, and our bodies and goods move around the world. transparency, and introduced radical efficiency turns 35 and I turn 70, what have we today confer unique advantage on RMI as we look into cruise, luxury, and naval vessels. We dared, done, won, lost, learned, and to the future. Automotive: Vehicle electrification has gone Tbecome? When RMI began in 1982, eight things from unimaginable to superior and (starting in were clear: From the start, we envisioned a world thriving, 2017–2018) affordable. This could be further sped “From the start, we envisioned a verdant, and secure, for all, for ever. We still do. by making autos not just modestly but severalfold 1. Energy is a “master key” to tangled emergent To build that world, the sharpest but most lighter and lower-drag, a shift RMI has led since world thriving, verdant, and secure, crises in resources, population, environment, neglected tool was efficient and restorative use of our 1991 invention of the Hypercar® concept. for all, for ever. We still do.” development, economy, and security. resources. It still is. Now opportunities are Needing two to three times less energy to move 2. We could best create and spread breakthrough getting bigger and cheaper, faster than they’re the auto can correspondingly reduce the number solutions in a small, agile, collaborative, applied.