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Since the oil crisis of the 1970s, Amory Lovins has been advising corporate and world leaders on how to save and create substitutions for fossil fuels. In this talk, sponsored by the Stanford Center for Social Innovation, Lovins details how, by 2040, the United States can reduce its need for oil altogether. This effort, he argues, can be led by business for profit.
Lovins offers specifics and metrics that demonstrate, through a combination of increased energy efficiency and the use of biofuels, how various business sectors can create savings, profits, and jobs. He makes materials, design, and production recommendations for how to increase fuel efficiency while creating better, safer, more technologically advanced, and ultimately less expensive cars and homes. He also discusses how various large companies' efforts to reduce carbon emissions and increase energy efficiency are leading to higher net profits.
Trained as an experimental physicist, Amory Lovins rose to prominence during the oil crises of the 1970s, when 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.
Lovins has briefed 16 heads of state, given expert testimony in eight countries, held several visiting academic chairs, and authored or coauthored 28 books and hundreds of papers. He has also consulted for many industries and governments worldwide, and received numerous major awards and honorary degrees. The Wall Street Journal’s Centennial Issue named him among the 39 people in the world most likely to change the course of business in the 1990s, and Car named him the 22nd most powerful person in the global car industry.
With Hunter Lovins, he founded Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), a Colorado-based resource policy think tank, in 1982. He continues to serve as CEO of the nonprofit institute, whose staff research and consult in a variety of fields. Under the Lovins’ leadership, RMI launched three 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; Hypercar, Inc., an automotive startup (1998); and the Natural Capitalism Practice (1999).
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