Amory Lovins is renowned for his wide-ranging intellect and unique
problem-solving approach, which he has used to make breakthroughs in fields
ranging from automobiles to energy. His work has consistently focused on
harnessing market forces to promote resource efficiency as a solution to a
variety of economic, social, and environmental problems.
Mr. Lovins has briefed 18 heads of state, given expert testimony in eight
countries, held several visiting academic chairs, authored or co-authored 29
books and hundreds of papers, consulted for scores of industries and
governments worldwide, and received numerous major awards and honorary
degrees. Dr. Alvin Weinberg, ex-Director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has
called him "surely the most articulate writer on energy in the whole world
today"; Newsweek, "one of the Western world's most influential energy
thinkers." Dr. John Ahearne, former Vice President of Resources for the Future,
remarked that "Amory Lovins has done more to assemble and advance understanding
of [energy] efficiency opportunities than any other single person." The Wall
Street Journal's Centennial Issue named him among 39 people in the world most
likely to change the course of business in the 1990s, and Car magazine called
him "the 22nd most powerful person in the global car industry."
Trained as an experimental physicist, Mr. Lovins rose to prominence during
the oil crises of the 1970s when, still in his twenties, he challenged
conventional supply-side dogma by urging that the United States instead follow
a "soft energy path." His controversial recommendations were eventually
accepted by the energy industry, and his book Soft Energy Paths: Toward a
Durable Peace (1977) went on to inspire a generation of decision-makers. A
sampling of the other highly acclaimed books Mr. Lovins has authored or
coauthored includes Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
(1999), Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use (1997), Brittle
Power: Energy Strategy for National Security (1982), and Energy/War: Breaking
the Nuclear Link (1980).
Mr. Lovins co-founded, with Hunter Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute, the
Snowmass-based applied research center, in 1982. RMI is an independent,
entrepreneurial, nonpartisan, nonprofit applied research center whose mission
is to foster the efficient and restorative use of natural, human, and other
capital to make the world more secure, just, prosperous, and life-sustaining.
He continues to serve as CEO of the organization, whose 43 staff members
research and consult in a variety of fields. Under the Lovinses' leadership,
RMI spun off two pioneering enterprises: E SOURCE, now a $10-million for-profit
electric-efficiency information service (founded in 1986 as COMPETITEK and sold
to the Financial Times group in 1999); and Hypercar, Inc., an automotive
technology-development startup (1998).
