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RMI Solutions RMI Solutions newsletter Rocky Mountain Institute/volume xix #3/Fall-Winter 2003 Rocky Mountain Institute/volume xix #3/Fall-Winter 2003 RMI Solutions RMI Solutions R ocky Mountain Institute has been deeply involved in green building (both influenc- ing it and promoting it) for twelve years. In recent years, our work with large buildings has become both more frequent and more important — for good reason. When done green, big projects exponentially multiply the benefits that green buildings typically produce. From schools to factories to offices to institutional facilities, properly designed and crafted big buildings can stem the so-called exodus to the suburbs, lure even the most un- inquisitive into rich learning environ- ments, and heal mental and physical ailments without a single doctor’s appointment (or bill). Better yet, these buildings incur smaller utility costs and keep investments firm. It’s somewhat disconcerting to think that we learned all this during the twentieth century, then promptly forgot what we knew. Now it’s time to relearn it. Big and Green. RMI has worked on some very big, very green buildings. Here we explain why bigger is not always worse for sustainable architecture (p. 1). Enlightening Blackouts. The 14 August blackout in the Northeast was entirely predictable. RMI’s Amory Lovins, Kyle Datta, and Joel Swisher comment on why, and offer common-sense ideas for fixing the problems (p. 5). Ecology is Free. A few years ago, STMicroelectronics, one of the world’s biggest chipmakers, hired RMI to help reduce its consumption of energy and resources. Here, former RMIte and consultant Chris Lotspeich updates us on millions of saved dollars and how RMI and ST found them (p. 7). V is for Very Cool. How many city plans consider climate change? Vancouver’s new long-range plan does, making it unique in the world. Here, RMI’s Michael Kinsley gives readers a look at what the document says (p. 10). Islands and Islanding. BC Hydro is looking for ways to meet Vancouver Island’s growing energy needs. In July, RMI helped the utility explore ideas to address the long-term energy needs of this large, beautiful, and renewables-rich place (p. 12). Greening the Grocer. RMI and Supervalu, the eleventh largest supermarket retailer in the United States, recently took a look at how supermarkets can freshen up their efficiency (p. 14). Other Voices. Pat Kociolek of the California Academy of Sciences describes the public’s desire for scientific knowledge and how his organization’s big new green building will help (p. 19). What’s Inside... National Solutions Council reception photos (above, p. 24): Bill Simon CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE Big and Green RMI IS HELPING BIG PROJECTS GO GREEN By William D. Browning, Hon. AIA, and Cameron M. Burns Renzo Piano’s design for the California Academy of Sciences’ new facility is an example of a large structure using green building strategies and letting those strategies dictate form. The “living roof” (below) will be covered with more than two and a half acres of native plant species. Drawing courtesy Renzo Piano Building Workshop (See p. 24)

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RMISolutionsRMISolutionsn e w s l e t t e r

Rocky Mountain Institute/volume xix #3/Fall-Winter 2003Rocky Mountain Institute/volume xix #3/Fall-Winter 2003

RMISolutionsRMISolutions

Rocky Mountain Institute has been deeply involved ingreen building (both influenc-

ing it and promoting it) for twelveyears. In recent years, our work withlarge buildings has become both more frequent and more important — for good reason. When done green,big projects exponentially multiply the benefits that green buildings typically produce.

From schools to factories to offices to institutional facilities, properlydesigned and crafted big buildings can stem the so-called exodus to the suburbs, lure even the most un-inquisitive into rich learning environ-ments, and heal mental and physicalailments without a single doctor’sappointment (or bill). Better yet, these buildings incur smaller utilitycosts and keep investments firm.

It’s somewhat disconcerting to think that we learned all this during the twentieth century,

then promptly forgot what we knew. Now it’s time to relearn it.

Big and Green. RMI has worked on some very big, very green buildings. Here we explain why bigger is not always worse for sustainable architecture (p. 1).

Enlightening Blackouts. The 14 August blackout in the Northeast was entirely predictable. RMI’s Amory Lovins, Kyle Datta, and Joel Swisher comment on why, and offer common-sense ideas for fixing the problems (p. 5).

Ecology is Free. A few years ago, STMicroelectronics, one of the world’s biggest chipmakers, hired RMI to help reduce its consumption of energy andresources. Here, former RMIte and consultant Chris Lotspeich updates us on millions of saved dollars and how RMI and ST found them (p. 7).

V is for Very Cool. How many city plans consider climate change? Vancouver’s new long-range plan does, making it unique in the world. Here, RMI’s Michael Kinsley gives readers a look at what the document says (p. 10).

Islands and Islanding. BC Hydro is looking for ways to meet Vancouver Island’s growing energy needs. In July, RMI helped the utility explore ideas to address the long-term energy needs of this large, beautiful, and renewables-rich place (p. 12).

Greening the Grocer. RMI and Supervalu, the eleventh largest supermarket retailer in the United States, recently took a look at how supermarkets can freshen up their efficiency (p. 14).

Other Voices. Pat Kociolek of the California Academy of Sciences describes the public’s desire for scientific knowledge and how his organization’s big new green building will help (p. 19).

What’s Inside...

National Solutions Council reception photos (above, p. 24): Bill Simon

C O N T I N U E D O N N E X T P A G E

Big and GreenR M I I S H E L P I N G B I G P R O J E C T S G O G R E E N

By William D. Browning, Hon. AIA, and Cameron M. Burns

Renzo Piano’s design for the CaliforniaAcademy of Sciences’ new facility is an example of a large structure usinggreen building strategies and lettingthose strategies dictate form. The “living roof” (below) will be coveredwith more than two and a half acres of native plant species.Drawing courtesy Renzo Piano Building Workshop

(See p. 24)

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Before the invention of big-buildingmechanical systems, access to lightand air were among the most impor-tant design considerations for largestructures. While the big buildings ofthe late nineteenth and early twenti-eth centuries were often heated withsteam, they were just as often pas-sively cooled and illuminated, using deep-set windows, retractable canvasawnings, thermally-absorbent stone,and other, now-forgotten passive- comfort tricks. After World War II,however, as buildings’ mechanical systems evolved and the InternationalStyle came to dominate architecture,access to light and air became end-of-design-process afterthoughts. With unlimited ducts, fans, pumps,and electricity, any building’s light,temperature, and humidity could bedragged into a habitable range.

As Bill McDonough observes in Big & Green: Toward SustainableArchitecture in the 21st Century,

“As the twentieth century came to aclose, most new buildings had becomeso divorced from their surroundingsthat the Wall Street Journal devoted anentire front page feature to a new officebuilding designed by my firm because ithad windows that could actually beopened. When operable windows makenews for setting a design standard, wehave reached an astonishingly low pointin architecture.”

“Green” elements, such as daylighting,natural ventilation, and alternativeenergy and wastewater systems,meanwhile found their niche in smallstructures, and it was here thatdesigners crafted personalized andvery livable spaces. As anyone whogrew up with Mother Earth Newscan recall, funky homes with solar collectors, wind turbines, and waterrecycling systems were commonplacein the early 1970s.

In 1973, the environmental move-ment of the late 1960s and ’70scrashed headlong into the Arab oil

embargo and America suddenly hadan “energy crisis.” The energy crisiswas most noticeable in the way itaffected transportation energy, but italso made an impression on the build-ing industry, and the notion that fossil fuels could indefinitely powerlarge space-conditioning systems wassuddenly challenged.

“In Europe, where the price of energywas even higher, governments encour-aged architects, engineers, and buildersto develop strategies to naturally illu-minate, ventilate, and supply power to buildings,” wrote David Gissen, a curator for the “Big & Green” showat the National Building Museum inWashington DC.

In the United States, the general environmental movement of the1970s didn’t catch on immediately,and floundered well into the 1980s.As James Wines noted in GreenArchitecture, “exploitative politics of ‘supply side’ economics and its reck-lessly self-serving environmental poli-cies” dominated social and politicallife, and it took several environmental

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Big and Green

RMI’s Huston Eubank Named Secretary of World Green Building Council

Huston Eubank, AIA, of RMI’s Green Development Services (GDS), has been named secretary of theWorld Green Building Council (WSGBC), a global federation of green building councils modeled after the decade-old U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

The mission of the WGBC is “to establish a common framework and principles for the formation of councils around the world, serve as a global voice on behalf of GBC members, support and promote

individual GBCs, establish a clearing house for knowledge transfer in cooperation with the International Initiative forSustainable Built Environment (iiSBE), and encourage the development of national green building rating systems.”

Huston has long been interested in international projects. Since non-American building projects offer U.S. designers bothimportant cultural lessons and location-specific building solutions, the assignment suits him perfectly.

The nine member nations of the new World Green Building Council are the United States, Australia, Spain, Canada, India,Japan, Korea, Mexico, and Brazil. The WGBC was formed in 1999; in November 2002, delegates from the membernations met prior to the USGBC’s annual conference in Austin and ratified the new organization’s formal constitution.

“I’m thrilled to have Huston’s vision, commitment and enthusiasm,” said Rick Fedrizzi, the organization’s president. “Rocky Mountain Institute was with us from day one, and we feel honored to have RMI assisting our efforts.”

RMI in the news

A Little Background

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Big and Green

disasters in the late 1980s and early1990s to bring resource issues back tocenter stage. As many citizens of theworld are now witnessing environ-mental calamity on at least an annualbasis, how humans treat the world willprobably remain a prominent topic.

“Since the journey into space, thefragility of the world has both shockedand challenged,” wrote Brenda andRobert Vale in their 1991 book GreenArchitecture. “It has become apparenthow dependent each person is on the planet, for all belong to the samewhole. The single shared experienceis that of living on the same, verysmall, earth. The way in which oneperson makes an alteration to theplanet must have an effect on theother 4,999,999,999 inhabitants.”

Today, a billion people later, “large”architecture is becoming — often out of necessity — green architecture.Many of the green buildings thatexist, including products that haveachieved a high U.S. Green BuildingCouncil LEED rating, are more or lessconventional buildings that have beentechno-fixed with green technologies.These buildings do have significantlybetter environmental performancethan conventional projects, but weshould take the next step. RMI’s GDSteam (Bill Browning, Huston Eubank,Alexis Karolides, and Jenifer Seal) has

been fortunate to be involved in sev-eral projects where the environmental performance of the building is largelya result of the fundamental designdecisions, examples of which are out-lined below. In each of these projects,the building’s form, skin, and systemsare inseparable from its environmen-tal performance goals.

How Is Bigger Better?To the casual observer, big buildingsseem the antithesis of energy- andresource-efficient design, but that is not necessarily the case. First,because of the concentration of users,the per-capita energy and resourceefficiency, during both constructionand operation, is much higher than inmost other types of structures.

Second, the urban location is impor-tant. These buildings are in placeswhere most occupants will arrive bymass transit or on foot.

Third, and less obvious, is the simplefact that large buildings have bigbudgets, and big budgets often allowdevelopers, architects, and engineers

to push their creativity and try thingsthat wouldn’t dare be considered withsmaller projects and smaller budgets —photovoltaics (PVs) in the building’sskin, for example, or wind turbineson the roof, or fuel cells near the elec-tricity’s users. These big buildings areimportant economic engines in twoimportant ways: a) they can enlargedemand for green technologies, there-by expanding production capabilitiesand lowering the price of PVs, tur-bines, special glazings, etc. (one largegreen building project, currently onhold, would have required the build-ing of a small industrial facility tomanufacture these devices), and, b) although this is not necessarily aquality of green buildings only, theywill have huge impacts on their cities’economies. For example, when theWorld Trade Center was attacked anddestroyed, Manhattan lost thirteenmillion square feet of office space, an area equal to roughly two-thirdsthe total office space in downtownSan Francisco.

Certainly big buildings, green and otherwise, can cast huge shadows and create strange wind patterns —two things the WTC did — but thereare some compelling reasons to push

David Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh, Pa (see p. 30).Photo courtesy Green Building Alliance

Today, “large” architecture is becoming — often out of necessity —

green architecture.

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these buildings as far as possibletoward sustainable design. RMI haslong advocated smaller, decentralized systems — notably with energy andwater devices and systems — butwhen it comes to green buildings, bigger does not always mean worse.

One Bryant Park

Location: 42nd Ave. and Sixth St., New York

Architect: Cook + Fox

Size: 2.1 million square feet

Year: Being designed in autumn 2003.

Client: Durst Organization

Description/what’s special:The developer is exploring a partial double-skinbuilding design (walls with space between them,often done in Europe), which can be very expen-

sive. If done properly, heating and coolingenergy savings can be, in the words of RMI’s Bill Browning,“enormous.” Raised floors, day-lighting systems, onsite power generation,sophisticated water efficiency, and highly efficient mechanical systems are also compo-nents under strong consideration.

Unique challenges: Speculative build-ing; however, the developer (who also did theCondé Nast building at 4 Times Square) is well-versed in green building issues and opportuni-ties and is requiring even better energy andresource efficiency performance than 4 TimesSquare achieved.

RMI’s involvement: RMI worked withBob Fox, now a partner at Cook + Fox, and the Durst Organization on 4 Times Square andwill help guide sustainability here. RMI led acharrette with the design team and the majortenant regarding high-performance data centers for trading floors.

Peking University,College of Environmental SciencesLocation: BeijingArchitect: Anthony Ng and

Prof.Young Ho ChangSize: 250,000 square feetYear: Construction hoped to start in 2004.Client: College of Environmental Sciences

Description/what’s special:A broad mixture of disciplines will go under oneroof.There’ll be architectural and landscapearchitecture studios, global information systemsareas, wetlabs, an atmospheric research department — you name it. A design charrettewas held in September 2003. In fast-developingChina, this building could help point the way to cleaner skies and better designs — because, best of all, it’s dedicated to teachingthe nation’s future leaders.

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Big and Green: Projects

C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 3 0

Retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral McGinn Joins RMIVice Admiral Dennis V. McGinn (USN Ret.) recently joined RMI as a senior fellow in international security. He is working with RMI CEO Amory Lovins and other policy experts on security issues.

Lecturing at the Naval War College around 1991, Amory was struck by the young Captain McGinn’s remarkthat aircraft carriers get the equivalent of about seventeen feet per gallon, and intrigued by his invitation to

help the Navy improve its fuel efficiency. A decade later, as Commander of the 120,000-person Third Fleet,Vice Admiral McGinn could make it happen: at the request of the Secretary of the Navy, Denny hosted

RMI’s exploration of the scope to save energy aboard a typical surface combatant (see RMI Solutions, Fall 2001), withfar-reaching implications for RMI’s effort to help the Pentagon shed its unwanted title as the world’s largest user of oil.

Before retiring as a three-star general from the U.S. Navy on 1 October 2002, Denny was Deputy Chief of NavalOperations for Warfare Requirements and Programs. His team of more than 700 developed, integrated, and prioritizedlong-term plans and a budget of $63 billion per year, implemented through more than 450 complex programs involvingten headquarters divisions and thirty-four field organizations.

In a distinguished thirty-five-year military career, Denny has been a naval aviator, a test pilot, and a national security strategist; held numerous command billets; Chief of Information Systems and Chief Negotiator, Allied Command EuropeRestructuring, at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers, Europe; directed Naval Aviation Warfare (responsible for over 120 high-tech programs costing $18 billion a year); and led the organization, training, and risk management of over 180 diverse and dispersed Naval and aviation units.

A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in naval engineering (1967), the Navy’s Test Pilot Program, and the InternationalSecurity Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School, Denny has served as a Strategic Studies Fellow in the Naval War Collegeand as Chairman of the U.S. Naval Institute. He holds the Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal,Legion of Merit (four awards), Distinguished Flying Cross, Meritorious Service Medal, and Strike Flight Air Medal.

In recent years, he has pioneered the introduction of network-centric warfare concepts to operating forces, led other keyelements of military transformation, and helped to integrate humanitarian relief efforts into military planning and practice.

Denny and his wife Kelly reside near Washington DC.

RMI in the news

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By Amory B. Lovins, E. Kyle Datta, and Joel N. Swisher, PE

We told you so.

There, we said it. RMI’s 1981 studyfor the Pentagon, Brittle Power:Energy Strategy for National Security(www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid533.php),explained why mishap or malice regu-larly crash the electricity system —and how an efficient, diverse, dis-persed, and more-renewable systemcould be crash-proof and cheaper.Twenty-two years later, the powergrid, our nation’s most complex andcritical infrastructure, remains pro-foundly vulnerable. Neither morestudies nor more blackouts havechanged what’s built. Disaster remainsthe grid’s unswerving destination.

The lights went out because theynever went on in the heads of theelectricity system’s architects, whoexpertly pursued flawed policy andtechnical goals — causing the 14August 2003 blackout, its predeces-sors, and (if nothing changes) its suc-cessors. Carefully orchestrated Houseand Senate hearings have just rein-forced this misconceived agenda.

The problem is overconcentration.America’s three major electric grids(roughly speaking East, West, andTexas) rely on aerial arteries and pre-cise electronic signals to keep hugemachines rotating in exact synchrony.Vast grids linking giant plants canmore evenly share cheap electricity,but they also make the grid less stablein new ways and over wider areas.Misplaced rules and rewards for

transmission have delayed moderniz-ing with fast solid-state switches andother devices (which can also raisepower lines’ capacity), enticing catas-trophe. Restructured electric marketschallenge this constrained systemwith transmission transactions of afrequency and complexity for which the grid was not designed.

After the 1965 and 1977 blackouts,utilities built more and heftier wires,

which, far from preventing cascadingfailure, made it more widespread andfrequent. Adding wires is as misguid-ed (in one utility executive’s words)as “prescribing bloodletting for a

patient with a high fever. It reflects afundamental misunderstanding ofwhat is amiss.” Building more powerlines is also slower and costlier thanthree other ways to do the samething: using electricity efficiently, letting customers respond to price orscarcity, and making power where the customers are.

The fastest and cheapest option isusing electricity very efficiently, so weneedn’t make and transmit so much of it to produce hot showers and coldbeer. But electricity is usually mis-priced, and forty-eight states rewarddistribution utilities for selling moreelectricity and penalize them for cut-ting customers’ bills. In 1989, stateutility regulators nationwide unani-mously voted for reform, but onlyCalifornia and Oregon actually havesmart incentives today, with Californiahaving restored them after its disas-trous 2000–01 digression. Theseincentives work. California’s per-capi-ta use of electricity has been flat dur-ing twenty-seven years of generallyrobust economic growth, while per-capita use grew by half in the otherforty-nine states. California nowwrings 14 percent greater produc-tivity from its electricity — half via efficiency standards that promptednational standards saving 40 billionwatts (40 GW) in refrigerator/freezers and 135 GW in air conditioners, vs. the 61 GW lost in the blackout.

A second key option is signaling cus-tomers when power is scarce, so theycan choose convenient ways to trimor defer power use. New “smartmeters” can make such “demandresponse” pay in homes and business-es alike. It’s widely done in some

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Enlightening Blackouts

Satellite images showing the Northeastern US and EasternCanada twenty hours before theblackout (top) and seven hours after the blackout (bottom).Photos: courtesy Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA)

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states and countries but underused inmost of the United States. Both loadmanagement and efficient use of elec-tricity free up transmission capacitywithout building new lines. Someexperts expect investigation to revealthat just a few hundred megawatts oftimely, well-placed load management,plus properly working switches, couldprobably have blocked the blackout.

Such demand response also dampensprice spikes when power is scarce,and provides cheap insurance againstartificial scarcity. Had Californiainstalled extra load management,equivalent to 1 percent of its peakload, shrewd investors could simplyhave shorted the power market (beton lower prices) in 2000–01 when suppliers were withholding supply to raise prices — then activated theirload management, dropped prices,averted shortages, and taken morethan $1 billion from the miscreants.

Moreover, almost all peak power ismade by inefficient gas-fired combus-tion turbines, so shaving just 5 per-cent of U.S. peak electric load wouldsave 9.5 percent of total U.S. naturalgas use — enough to return gas pricesto their previous normal range foryears. (That’d save customers about$40 billion a year, plus power-costreductions estimated by McKinsey &Co. at $15 billion a year.) And bothdemand response and efficient usecan be fast. Two decades ago, the tenmillion people served by SouthernCalifornia Edison Company were cutting its forecasted peak demand by 8.5 percent every year. This costthe utility about 1 percent as much

as new supply. Today’s technologiesand delivery methods are far better.

The third key option is decentralizedor “distributed” generation. Why didthe Manhattan skyline show islands of light twinkling through the dark-ness? Because some local “micro-power” generators were designed and allowed to isolate from the collapsing grid and keep serving theirlocal loads. A new engineering stan-dard for safely “islanding” should beadopted nationwide: interconnectinglocal generators with the grid shouldrequire compliance with that standard(IEEE 1547), UL approvals, localbuilding codes, and nothing else.

Tangled and discriminatory rules hinder decentralized generation. A megawatt generated where it’sneeded is far more reliable than amegawatt generated far away, but israrely paid for this considerable value. The Federal Energy RegulatoryCommission doesn’t yet let demand-side or distributed-generation solutions compete on an equal basiswith transmission upgrades, nor canefficient use and load managementcompete with generation in mostwholesale markets. States thatupgrade transmission can cost-sharewith neighboring states, but thosebuying cheaper alternatives must pay the whole cost themselves.

States should also let decentralizedgenerators compete widely and fairly.Certain types of small, onsite genera-tors should be able to sell power backat the same tariff customers pay (adozen states don’t yet allow such “netmetering,” and many others’ asymmet-rical rules penalize micropower). Andstates should abolish excessive fixedcharges and anticompetitive exit fees.

From about 1880 to 1980, power sta-tions were less reliable than the grid.

Ever larger units backed each otherup on ever larger grids. Today, deliver-ing the most reliable and affordablepower requires making it at or nearthe customers, because new genera-tors have become cheaper and morereliable than new transmission anddistribution, making new power linesless competitive and less necessary.

Despite all the obstacles, micropoweris growing rapidly — partly because,as RMI’s Economist Book of the Year(www.smallisprofitable.org) explains,its 207 hidden economic benefitsoften boost value by about tenfold. Yet the whole public policy frame-work still favors big plants and trans-mission lines — electricity’s last bastion of central planning — andshields both from real competition.Proposals for federally mandated and subsidized powerline constructionwould if anything exacerbate thisproblem. And building more and bigger power lines will ultimatelycause more and bigger blackouts.

Letting all options compete fairly —all ways to make or save electricity,no matter what size or kind they areor who owns them — would reshapethe grid into an architecture as resil-ient as the Internet. This would makesense, make money, and make majorfailures nearly impossible by design.

The problem isn’t too few powerlines; it’s rules that reward expensiveexpansion of a grid inherently vulner-able to devastating failure and hencean attractive target for terrorists. We can’t afford to hit the snooze button again and doze through thislatest wakeup call.

Amory Lovins is CEO, Kyle Datta is

Managing Director (and former leader

of Booz Allen & Hamilton’s U.S. utilities

practice), and Dr. Swisher is Energy &

Resources team leader at RMI (www.rmi.org).

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Enlightening Blackouts

Letting all options compete fairly —

all ways to make or save electricity,

no matter what size or kind they are

or who owns them — would reshape

the grid into an architecture as resilient

as the Internet.

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7

Photos and story by Chris Lotspeich

Many of the attributes of a successful business are alsouseful for tackling environ-

mental challenges: visionary leaders,empowered employees, innovation,efficiency, continuous improvement,and market leadership. It should thusbe no surprise that STMicroelectron-ics (ST), a leading high-tech com-pany, is also a pioneer of sustainable commerce. RMI is pleased to havecontributed to ST’s award-winningaccomplishments.

ST is one of the world’s top fivemicrochip manufacturers, with over$6 billion in revenues and 43,000employees in thirty-one countries atseventeen manufacturing sites andother corporate facilities. CEOPasquale Pistorio champions totalquality management (TQM), empha-sizing measurement and continuousimprovement to boost yield and mini-mize waste. The Decalogue, ST’s “tencommandments” of environmentalperformance, specifies goals for savingenergy and water, reducing green-house gases, and other objectives.Pistorio says environmental manage-ment “is not an expensive luxury, butan economic advantage. To paraphrasea well-known statement, we believe

‘ecology is free’.”

Microchip Manufacturing

Microchip fabrication facilities (or “fabs”) are complex and energy-intensive. Chips are made on siliconwafers in high-tech devices called

“tools,” which operate inside climate-controlled “clean rooms.” Chip manu-

facturing is very sensitive to disrup-tion and contamination. Productionstoppages can cost more than $1 mil-lion per day.

Fabs have extensive heating, ventilat-ing, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems with high-performance filtersto maintain clean rooms’ temperatureand humidity very precisely while limiting airborne particles. Fans,pumps, furnaces, and chillers deliverconditioned air and cooling water into the clean room via ducts and pipes.Depending on their size, fabs usefrom 3 megawatts to as much as 15 megawatts of power. HVAC sys-tems consume 30–50 percent of afab’s electricity; tools use another 40 percent or so. Energy accounts forless than 2 percent of a chip’s cost,yet electricity can be the largest singleoperating expense for a chipmaker,totaling millions of dollars annually ata single fab. Moreover, energy-savingmeasures can improve key operatingparameters (yield, setup time, flexi-bility), and in new plants can save capital and construction time — critical factors in competitiveness.

Despite great innovation, semicon-ductor manufacturing fosters a risk-averse corporate culture due to exact-ing process requirements, safety risks, the high cost of downtime, and brutalcompetition in a fast-moving market-place. (Not surprisingly, Intel CEOAndy Grove’s book was titled OnlyThe Paranoid Survive.) Meeting pro-duction and time-to-market targetsrequires extraordinary control overthousands of variables. When some-thing works, it is copied exactly.Firms also “copy exactly” previousfabs when building new ones. This

savessometime andinitialcost, yetretardsimprove-mentsoutsidethecleanroom,including energy efficiency features —thus raising operating costs. It’s some-what ironic that cutting-edge tech-nologies are made in buildingsdesigned decades ago, and thus thosebuildings now offer significant energy-and money-saving potential.

RMI’s work with ST

In the mid-1990s, Amory Lovins’slongtime friend and mentor Lee EngLock helped to make ST’s Singaporefab the most energy-efficient in theindustry. Energy costs per siliconwafer were reduced by 60 percentwith a compact, multilevel fab designas well as retrofit projects, 80 percentof which paid for themselves within eighteen months. Mr. Lee then gaveLovins’s book Factor Four to ST’sVlatko Zagar. He shared it with Vice President of Total Quality andEnvironmental Management (TQEM)Murray Duffin, who asked RMI to work with ST. I was then an RMIsenior associate and Amory’s execu-tive assistant, and was fortunate to lead our consulting with ST.

During 1998–2000, Amory and I led energy efficiency surveys at eight fabs in Europe and the UnitedStates. Our team included Mr. Lee,Ron Perkins, and Peter Rumsey fromSupersymmetry; consultant ChrisRobertson; and E SOURCE’s Jay Stein.ST’s Vlatko Zagar and Eugenio

Ecology is FreeR M I ’ S W O R K W I T H S T M I C R O E L E C T R O N I C S

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Ferro traveled with us. Some of our recommendations were tried during our surveys and yielded imme-diate benefits, prompting then-TQEMDirector Georges Auguste to callRMI’s first visit “very successful andquite profitable.”

We trained ST staff and helped Zagardevelop an energy efficiency manual.Robertson contributed to our trainingand consulting efforts on distributedgeneration, energy-saving technolo-gies, and “green tools” initiatives.Lee’s Singapore office also worked atST’s Asian facilities.

Typically we identified potentialHVAC energy savings of 30–50 per-cent, plus other efficiency opportuni-ties. Collectively these retrofits had payback periods of less than twoyears. Generally we ignored tools and worked outside the clean roomsin order to avoid concerns about any interference with production.

Significant energy and water effi-ciency potential also exists in themanufacturing process, which ST has begun to explore.

Our recommendations included slow-ing fans and pumps while maintainingflow with low-friction ducts and pipes.Halving air velocity reduces fan ener-gy by nearly seven-eighths. Controlnetworks with performance sensorsand motors with variable-speed drivesenable HVAC systems to do only as much work as is needed at eachmoment. “Free cooling” can be provided by cool outside air or, inlow-humidity conditions, by runningmore cooling towers at lower fanspeeds. The free cooling system atST’s fab near Milan costs 80 percentless to operate than conventional cooling, saving $500,000 annuallywith a payback of one to three years,depending on the weather.

Results

Since the mid-1990s, ST has steadilyreduced its resource intensity whilerising from outside the ranks of the top ten chipmakers to becomeone of the five biggest in revenue. From 1994 to 1997, ST exceeded itsDecalogue goal of reducing energy use annually by 5 percent per milliondollars of added value. After the firstyear of work with RMI in 1998, SThad reduced energy consumption by17 percent and CO2 emissions by 20percent relative to the 1994 baseline.

In 1999 RMI evaluated two fabs’implementation of our recommenda-tions. In one year, mechanical utilitiesenergy use decreased by 5–10 percentoverall, and fell by as much as 40 percent in air and water handling.Savings equaled 2–4 percent of totalsite energy use, even though the manufacturing process was excluded.ST’s worldwide energy intensity fell 26 percent from 1994 to 1999.

8

“We are strongly motivated by a spirit of ‘constructive dissatisfaction,’ and we cannot be complacent.”

Pasquale Pistorio, CEO, STMicrolectronics

STMicroelectronics

‘Data Hound’ Koomey Joins RMI as SeniorFellowJonathan Koomey, Ph.D., a staff scientist currently on leave from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,where he led end-use research, has joined RMI as a senior fellow. A self-described “data hound,” Jon contributed to the RMI High-Performance Data Center charrette; he is among the nation’s leading

authorities on how energy is used, particularly by data equipment, and led the debunking of Mark Mills’surban legend about the supposedly high energy demands of the Internet (see RMI Solutions, Spring2003). Jon is a key member of RMI’s team preparing Out of the Oil Box: A Roadmap for U.S.

Mobilization, a major synthesis for business and military leaders. Jon will be the MAP/Ming visiting professor in energyand environment at Stanford for the 2003–2004 school year (a position held last year by RMI’s Dr. Joel Swisher, PE). He has authored or coauthored seven books and more than 130 reports and articles on energy policy, energy economics,and climate change. His most recent book is Turning Numbers Into Knowledge: Mastering the Art of Problem Solving(www.numbersintoknowledge.com, Analytic Press, Oakland, Calif., 2001, also available from www.rmi.org), whichhelps readers hone their critical thinking and numeracy skills. Amory Lovins commented: “This splendidly clear and concise introduction to the craft should be a foundation of every student’s apprenticeship — and for those who missed it, a toolkit for a salutory retrofit later. How much more quickly and pleasantly we would discover truth if everyone followedthese simple precepts!”

RMI in the news

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Despite the 2001 market downturn,energy efficiency per unit of produc-tion improved 15 percent from 2001to 2002. Electricity use per waferwent down by about one-third during1994–2002, while electricity per pin(the external lead connection on a finished product) fell 40–50 percentbelow 1994 levels.

Energy efficiency added $60 millionof profit between 1994 and 2001. No energy efficiency investment hastaken longer than three years to payback, and collectively these measureshave yielded an average payback oftwo years. A 2001 company-wide sur-vey identified 350 energy efficiencyactions to be implemented by 2004 with projected annual savings of over $11 million.

ST’s Goal: Zero Net CO2 Emissions by 2010

ST believes climate change is “themost pressing environmental threat.”Lovins contributed to Duffin’s andPistorio’s comprehensive climate strategy, which included productionimprovements, energy efficiency,cleaner power, and carbon offsets.Based on these efforts, in 1999 ST set a goal of zero net CO2 emissionsby 2010 — when ST expects to bemaking forty times as many chips as it did in 1990.

By 2010, ST’s electricity is to come65 percent from alternative sourcessuch as fuel cells and cogeneration,30 percent from conventional sources,and 5 percent from renewables.

This would reduceCO2 emissions permillion dollars ofadded value by more than 80 per-cent from 1990. ST forecasts totalsavings of over 10million metric tonsof CO2 and $900million of energyduring 1994–2010.ST has photovoltaicson buildings in theUnited States and

France, and is adding to its suppliers a combined heat and power plant inSicily and a 10.5-megawatt wind farm in France. ST will offset remain-ing CO2 emissions with reforestation and other activities, including 3,000 hectares of trees planted by2003. In 2002’s down market, ST’senvironmental investments were 1.29 percent of its total investments —and, since 2000, boasted a nearly 50 percent return. Since 1994, the fraction of waste sent to landfill fell from 70 percent to 15 percent;

the recycled fraction rose from 25 percent to 60 percent; and waterconsumption fell 33 percent, saving$70 million.

Conclusion

The RMI team’s relationship with ST continues. ST researchers support-ed the Hypercar® project, in whichPistorio also invested personally. Mr. Lee participated in the 2001 global energy survey. Peter Rumseyworked on ST’s U.S. fabs, anddesigned an award-winning ventila-tion system for a Phoenix clean room that reduced energy consump-tion by 75 percent.

ST says its “ecological commitment[is] not only for ethical and social rea-sons, but also for financial return, andthe ability to attract the most respon-sible and high performing people.”

“Our ‘ecological vision’ is to become a corporation that closely approachesenvironmental neutrality.” Pistorioadds “Nevertheless, we are stronglymotivated by a spirit of ‘constructivedissatisfaction,’ and we cannot becomplacent. There is much more todo and we are still far from meetingthe needs of today without compro-mising the ability of future genera-tions to meet their own needs.”

Computing pioneer Alan Kay is credit-ed with the saying: “The best way topredict the future is to invent it.” Witha little help from RMI, Pistorio and hiscolleagues at ST are doing just that.

A former RMIte, Chris Lotspeich is a principal with Second Hill Group, an independent consultancy in Coventry,Connecticut. He can be reached at [email protected].

9

STMicroelectronics

“The best way to predict the future

is to invent it.”

Alan Kay, computer pioneer

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

• For information on STMicroelec-tronics, including social and environmental reportwww.st.com

• Rumsey Engineers www.rumseyengineers.com

• E SOURCE www.esource.com

STMicroelectronics’s RichardPieranunzi, Alain Brochet, LaurentBosson, and Pasquale Pistorio; RMI’s Amory Lovins; and ChrisLotspeich (l-r).

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By Michael J. Kinsley

For nearly twenty years, RMI has worked with communitiesinterested in moving toward

sustainability. Leaders in these placesinevitably ask which communities have reached this fabled destination.We generally respond by describingthe many wonderful things variouscommunities — Burlington, Portland,Ithaca, Seattle, Chattanooga — aredoing. But despite these cities’ efforts,no community has yet attempted an across-the-board approach to sustainability.

This summer on a visit to BritishColumbia, Amory and I were given an extraordinary book and CD-ROM,A Sustainable Urban System: TheLong-Term Plan for Greater Vancouver.We can now say that one city, at least,has developed a long-term plan clearlyheaded in the right direction, andbuilt broad support for getting there.For that Vancouver won first prize in a global sustainable-cities designcompetition.

Thebookbegins byexamining forces that will shape anycity this century, including technology,globalization, demographics, resourcescarcity, and climate — with essaysthat offer food for any community’sthoughts. They include phenomenathat, in many cities, are ignored to theperil of future residents. For example,many urban leaders worldwide andespecially in the United States simplyignore global climate change. I hopethese leaders are right; but if they’rewrong, residents will suffer mightily.History is rife with human sufferingcaused by leaders’ denial of awkwardrealities. In sharp contrast, this plandemonstrates that Vancouver leadershave begun considering the implica-tions of, and ways to respond to, climate change — including ways toadapt to it.

The CD-ROM’s paper on climatestates, “A prudent approach is to

emphasize flexible and robustplanning strategies that confersustainability and survivabilityunder all such scenarios,” andgoes on to list such potentialimplications as trade disruptions, fish mortality, water shortages,

industry costs, and crop losses.

The slim but content-rich volume isnot a plan in the conventional sense.It doesn’t prescribe specific stepstowards sustainability. Rather, it creates “an opportunity for findingsolutions…” by, among other things,defining “our region as one system,where the people, the place, the infrastructure, and the governancesystems are in constant interaction.” With core themes of sustainability,resilience, and livability, the plan’sremarkable vision says: “We will create an economy that prospers, not by exhausting the natural wealthand beauty of this or any other place,but by harnessing human potentialand natural resources and energy thatcan be continually renewed.”

The plan regards local assets and pastsuccesses as “seeds of sustainability,”of which Vancouver has many.

Visionary Gaviotas Founder Visits RMIPaolo Lugari, founder of the extraordinary sustainable village Gaviotas in northeasternColombia (and pictured here with RMI’s CEO Amory Lovins and Executive DirectorMarty Pickett), recently visited RMI for the first time. After making a presentation tostaff, he toured the headquarters building, then delved into a wide-ranging discussion ofeverything from biodiesel manufacture to climate, solar collector design to peacemaking.For more information see www.friendsofgaviotas.org, where Alan Weisman’s inspiring

1998 book Gaviotas: A Village to Save the World is available. Aphorism of the day: Paolo’s father took him out of school “so as not to interrupt his education.”

RMI in the news

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10

Envisioning a SustainableVancouver

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Examples include local renewableenergy sources (e.g., local companiesthat are world leaders in fuel cells)and BC Hydro’s energy-efficiency ini-tiatives (see story p. 12).

I was starting to think that the planread like something Amory mighthave written. But no, it was muchbetter — Vancouver locals wrote it.

Using powerful GIS-based Quest software, developed by Vancouver’sEnvision Sustainability Tools(www.envisiontools.com), the planincludes compelling charts and graphsthat portray the effects of “business asusual” along with its result: “In lessthan half the time envisioned in our100-year plan, if Greater Vancouvercontinues with business-as-usual, we will not be a sustainable, resilient, or livable region.” Can you imagineleaders in your community having the courage to say that — and back itup with nonthreatening but persua-sive facts?

Finding the city’s current direction tobe unsustainable, the plan then trans-lates goals into forty-nine targets,including “clearly defined and quan-tifiable metrics, stipulating a specificlevel of performance that is requiredto achieve each goal” (e.g., percent-age of volunteerism, of exports certi-fied as sustainable, of householdsspending less than 30 percent of theirincome on housing, etc.).

The plan offers ideas and new ways ofthinking about planning that can beused in any city. For example, a paperon the CD-ROM called “One-SystemApproach” is a stimulating little trea-tise on integrating urban energy, water,and waste systems, though the lan-guage is awkward in places and sometheory is a bit vague. It discusses, forinstance, more efficient “cascading”uses of water and energy: instead of

using high-quality water and energy foreverything, the article urges substitut-ing lower-quality water and energywhere they are appropriate. For exam-ple, sink water can be readily used onthe garden and in the toilet, and par-tially-treated wastewater can be easilyintroduced into local wetlands.

The plan uses targets and backcastingto develop water strategies that willhelp the city reach sustainability inone hundred years. It begins: “GreaterVancouver has one of the highest percapita water uses in Canada. While[water] has been abundant in pastyears, climate change and increasingpopulations may lead to shortfalls in afew decades.” Thus the plan’s watertarget, though not rocket science, is tothe point: “…live within the capacityof the current mountain reservoirs.”

The strategy for achieving this targetin residences (as an example) includessuch measures as metering, xeriscap-ing, efficient toilets and appliances,and returning rainfall immediately tothe ground instead of sending it tosewer systems. The plan claims thatthese solutions meet its self-imposedstandards of “prudence, plausibility,and pro-activity.” Applying analogousstrategies to the commercial andindustrial sectors, the plan anticipatesthat existing mountain reservoirs cansuffice to serve the region into thenext century, despite an anticipateddoubling of local population and a projected decline in rainfall due to climate change.

Moving to implementation, the planidentifies eight “catalyst” strategies.Though they are too lengthy to dis-cuss here, one in particular caught

Amory’s attention: “Create shockresilient cells. Use a cellular structureto re-organize land use and criticalinfrastructure capacity, enhancinglocal ability to adapt rapidly to unex-pected shocks.” The plan says that thecity can expect “an increasing varietyand frequency of shocks, from theanticipated natural ones such as floodsand earthquakes, to unanticipatedplagues, droughts, computer viruses,organized crime, economic boycotts,toxic pollution, social unrest, and theloss of key trading partners.” It saysthat existing infrastructure ignoresthese threats and that a “cellularstructure” would reduce vulnerability.The structure would include a fewvery large self-reliant cells. “The struc-ture then sub-divides into a collectionof smaller, less autonomous cells. This [fractal] structure will be used tomitigate threats in a variety of ways.”

Despite a few glitches here and there,this remarkable and visionary integra-tion of strategic urban design is rec-ommended reading for planners andactive citizens who seek a more cre-ative, innovative, and sustainablefuture for their own communities.Vancouver’s vision for the future is asclear as the lakes in the nearby moun-tains. Any city that includes suchthorny issues as climate change in its long-range plan is far ahead of the pack.

Cofounder of RMI’s Economic Renewal program, Michael Kinsley is RMI’s expert on sustainable community initiatives and its lead workshop facilitator. Copies of A Sustainable Urban System: The Long-TermPlan for Greater Vancouver can be orderedfrom www.sheltair.com — hard copies withCD-ROM for C$75.00, or downloads free.

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Sustainable Vancouver

Any city that includes such thorny issues as climate change

in its long-range plan is far ahead of the pack.

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Rocky Mountain Instituteworks with a variety of organ-izations. One of our long-

standing core specialties is helpingutilities develop long-term energyresource investment strategies empha-sizing sensible, cost-minimizing mixtures of efficiency and renewables.

Among ourmost recentclients in this area is BC Hydro.One of thelargest electric utilities in Canada, BC Hydro serves more than 1.6 million customers (over 94 percent of British Columbia’s population) and generatesbetween 43,000 and 54,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually from thirty-one hydroelectric facilities, three thermal plants, and a number of smalldiesel stations that provide local power to remote areas of BC.

Exploring Vancouver Island’s Energy Future

Hypercar Wins 2003 World Technology AwardIn late June, the World Technology Network (WTN) selected Hypercar, Inc. as the winner of the

2003 World Technology Award for “Environment.” The Awards were presented by the WTNin association with Nasdaq, Accenture, Microsoft, Genencor International, Dupont Textilesand Interiors, Time magazine, Technology Review magazine, Science magazine, and

Business 2.0 magazine. The World Technology Awards honor individuals and corporations from twenty technology-relatedsectors selected by their peers as being the innovators doing work of the greatest likely long-term significance. Award cate-gories range from biotechnology, space and energy to ethics, design, and entertainment.

Selection as a winner also means that Hypercar has been elected as a corporate member of the World Technology Network.

“It’s quite an honor to receive this award,” said Dr. Jon Fox-Rubin, President and CEO of Hypercar. “The diversity of the World Technology Network supports our view that many sectors of the community have an understanding of theneed for, and impact of, vehicles based on hypercar ® architecture. Within a generation or two, we sincerely hope therewill no longer be a market segment called environmental automobiles: they will all be safe for our environment and our children. It’s gratifying to know that our contributions to putting the car on the road to a sustainable tomorrow have notgone unnoticed.”

Nominees for the 2003 World Technology Awards were identified through an intensive global process in which currentWTN members (primarily winners and finalists of previous awards) made their nominations and then voted their prefer-ences based on who they think are most innovative and impactful within their particular field.

James P. Clark, founder and chairman of the World Technology Network, added: “The World Technology Awards programwas created to recognize truly extraordinary innovation on a global scale, the sort of work that could be described as creating our collective future and changing our world. Hypercar’s contribution in the field of environment has been out-standing, and their selection as a new WTN corporate member is public acknowledgement of that fact.”

The World Technology Network is a London-based organization created to “encourage serendipity” — happy accidents —amongst innovative individuals and companies. WTN’s areas of interest range from IT and communications to biotech-nology, energy, materials, and space, as well as related fields such as finance, marketing, policy, law, design, and ethics. For more information, please visit www.wtn.net.

In 1999, RMI’s CEO Amory Lovins was also a personal recipient of the World Technology Award (Environment) and a final-ist in the energy category.

RMI in the news

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13

Vancouver Island

The rest of BC Hydro’s supply isbought from BC-based independentpower producers and from markets in Alberta and the United States. BC Hydro supplements its large central generation assets with small-to medium-scale distributed energyand energy efficiency programs, suchas Power Smart, Resource Smart,Green Energy, and customer self-gen-eration programs. In collaborationwith transportation industry partners,BC Hydro also has an active hydrogenprogram (the Compressed HydrogenInfrastructureProgram, orCH2IP), whichhas built theworld’s first10,000-psigaseous hydrogenvehicle-fueling station at BCHydro’s Powertech Labs facility in Surrey.

On 14 July, BC Hydro and RMI con-vened a “meeting of the minds” toexplore ideas to address the long-termenergy needs of Vancouver Island.Participants of the workshop engagedin a “blue sky” visioning of VancouverIsland’s electricity future, exploringsmall-scale and distributed energysolutions that may be viable in thelong term (i.e., 10–20-year timeframe). At the time, BC Hydro wasproposing to address short-termpower concerns on Vancouver Islandby building a new combined cycle gas turbine facility in Nanaimo, BC(on the island), which would befuelled by natural gas from the pro-posed Georgia Strait Crossing Pipelineproject. Both of these projects werebefore regulatory bodies for approval.

Representatives from RMI at theevent included Amory Lovins, Kyle Datta, Joel Swisher, PE, Ph.D.,

Katherine “Kitty” Wang, PE, andMichael Kinsley. BC Hydro staff, along with other efficiency and energyexperts from around the province,also attended. The workshop’s foursubgroups discussed a range of topics,from demand-side management (DSM)and renewable energy to transmissionand distribution, from energy storagetechnologies to BC Hydro’s currentcosts, rates, and customer policies.RMI was most keen to help the participants emphasize integratedresource planning concepts across theboundaries of departments and disci-plines. The diverse group enjoyed this creative approach to addressingVancouver Island’s specific long-term needs.

“RMI’s approach is a refinement of the methodology used for traditionalintegrated resource planning (IRP), in which demand-side managementtechnologies such as energy efficiencyimprovements are considered as utili-ty investments that can complementand compete with conventional sup-ply technologies in energy resourceplanning,” Kitty explained. “RMItakes a more locally-oriented, bottom-up approach, which is appropriate for addressing the situation onVancouver Island.”

“This was truly a ground breaking session, bringing together this groupof energy experts in one room for one day to explore this challenge,”said Bev van Ruyven, BC Hydro’s senior vice-president of distribution.

“Overall, I think the day generatedover fifty ideas, and the group votedon twelve to follow up on immediately.

This is an exciting time and showsthe potential for long-term energyplanning at BC Hydro.”

Much of the forward-thinking informa-tion about electricity services present-ed at the workshop came from RMI’saward-winning 2002 book Small IsProfitable (www.smallisprofitable.org).SIP explains and details how small,decentralized electricity devices spreadacross the grid can supply, store, and distribute electricity more cheaplythan most centralized systems, andreduce the risk of blackouts.

“It’s a strength for BC Hydro that wehave identified and are pursuing sup-ply and demand-side options on anequal footing,” said Richard Marchant,manager of BC Hydro’s Power Smartprogram. “This planning across thelines of business and within theirfunctions is important and producesvaluable results. The RMI workshopwas very valuable to me as a manager,and it was good to have people exter-nal to Hydro involved, to challengeour thinking and our decision-makingframework. Now, we need to moveforward using the results and incorpo-rating the findings of the workshopinto our long-term energy planning.”

The workshop report’s extensivesmorgasbord of ideas for VancouverIsland gained new importance whenthe B.C. Utility Commission, on 8 September, rejected the gas-firedplant because it hadn’t been shown tobe least-cost. BC Hydro promptlybegan contracting for wind power,small hydro, and a diverse portfolio ofother green alternatives.

“It was good to have people external to Hydro involved, to challenge our thinking and

our decision-making framework. Now, we need to move forward using the results and

incorporating the findings of the workshop into our long-term energy planning.”

Richard Marchant BC Hydro’s Power Smart program

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Stand in front of the typical grocery store freezer withthe door closed (while you

wrestle with the knotty problem ofBen & Jerry’s yogurt vs. real ice cream)and you get a good first lesson in theenergy efficiency challenges faced bysupermarkets. Cold air spills from thedevice and settles on the floor aroundyour sandaled feet. You shiver andmake a hasty decision — one youmight regret later.

Rocky Mountain Institute’s GreenDevelopment Services (GDS)is working on small challenges likefreezer efficiency as well as much

bigger resource issues that encom-pass the entire supermarket retail industry’s buildings.

John Domino, of the Supervalusupermarket chain, had read aboutAmory Lovins’s and RMI’s work in a2000 Time magazine article. Curiousto see what he could achieve in thechain’s prototype store, Domino hiredGDS to conduct a charrette early thisyear. Supervalu is the eleventh largestsupermarket retailer in the UnitedStates with over 1,400 stores (includ-ing Cub foods and Farm Fresh) in thir-ty-nine states. Brainstorming sessionsrevealed a mix of technological solu-tions, ranging from conventional toexperimental, for the stores’ lighting,

refrigeration,HVAC systems, and buildingenvelope. Supervalu staffers and GDS’s teamworking on the facility calculated that just the lighting efficiency ideas could save 28 percent of theenergy used by the 70,000-square-foot prototype store.

The team also investigated a thermaldisplacement ventilation system(being successfully used in Sainsburygrocery stores in the United King-dom), which uses natural convectionfor airflow. The final mechanical andrefrigeration package savings is estimated to be 35 percent.

14

Rasmussen Joins RMI as Senior FellowCommander Eric Rasmussen (US Navy), MD, MDM, FACP, former Fleet Surgeon with the U.S. Navy’s Third Fleet,has joined RMI as a senior fellow. A Stanford-trained physician, a fellow of the American College of Physicians, and with amaster’s degree in disaster medicine from the World Health Organization, Eric currently works on medical issues for inter-

national humanitarian operations. Most recently he was physician-coordinator for the IraqHumanitarian Operations Center in Kuwait during the war in Iraq, and remains an advisor to senior leaders within the Administration, both domestically and within Iraq. In addition to his academic positions in medicine, computer science, and epidemiology, he also serves as aPrincipal Investigator for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)and the National Science Foundation.

Beyond his humanitarian work in Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Bosnia, and the Middle East, someof his DARPA efforts have been remarkable, notably his directing the June 2000 Operation

Strong Angel international exercise, a major civil-military refugee-assistance training event in humanitarian support. StrongAngel was conducted in a barren region of the big island of Hawai‘i within a larger multinational exercise, RIMPAC 2000,that involved seven nations, 22,000 people, fifty ships, and 200 aircraft. Strong Angel’s goal was to familiarize multinationalmilitaries and the main United Nations relief agencies with each other’s capabilities, strengths, and limitations, then create areplicable system for subsequent humanitarian efforts, and subsequently to develop a coordinated response to crises. Theresults were briefed to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the guidelines developed from Strong Angel later contributed to themanagement of civilian casualties within the war in Iraq.

Eric (above, in front of a monument celebrating Saddam Hussein’s reign) co-led RMI’s 2002 “Sustainable Settlements”charrettes in Aspen and Santa Barbara. Although a practicing academic physician in San Diego, Eric’s current work alsoinvolves integrating humanitarian assistance and sustainable technology, and he has played a key role in the developmentof austere communications tools for helping displaced populations and the organizations that work with them. “There arefew people who know the on-the-ground realities of international humanitarian and security issues as well as Eric,” saidRMI’s CEO Amory Lovins. “We — and the world — are lucky to have him on board.”

RMI in the news

Greening the Grocer

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GDS has a history ofworking with largeretailers. In 1999,GDS led a charrette for a prototype Stop & Shop grocerystore. The resultinglandmark building forAhold, the Netherlands-based owner,exceeds by roughly a third the initialgoal of a 30 percent saving, and goesbeyond energy to demonstrate manygreen building techniques applicableto grocery stores internationally.

Further, the com-pany garners higher sales withthe improvedstore. RMI CEOAmory Lovinsbelieves that acomprehensive,

clean-sheet redesign of a typical supermarket could save as much as70–90 percent of normal energyusage, possibly at lower capital cost,while improving both merchandising and food safety.

In the 1990s, GDS helped make the first “eco-WalMart,” located inLawrence, Kansas, more energy-efficient and environmentally sustain-able. As documented in numerousGDS reports, the project’s productivi-ty, as measured in sales per squarefoot, was significantly higher in the daylit half of the store. WalMart, too, is weaving green concepts into its stores. Clearly, these kinds of energy and resources savings are getting retailers to think “outside of the box.”

15

Greening the Grocer

Letter of the Month:

Homemade Money 20 March 2003

Dear RMI Solutions,Last night I had the great pleasure of spending some time with Amory (for the first time in a few years) at the Califor-

nia Academy of Sciences presentation in San Francisco, and he said that you might be interested in hearing our story.We own a tract house in El Cerrito, Calif. of just under 1,200 square feet, built in 1947. The priority when it was

built was speed of construction and, as a result, it started life as one of the least energy-efficient buildings you’d ever hope to not meet.

In 2000 and 2001, it became apparent that we would have the money to overhaul it comprehensively, and the first thing — literally — that I bought was a copy of Homemade Money, from which we picked and chose, following the path of “cheapest stuff first.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t cost-effective to install photovoltaics — our roof has little south-facing exposure, and what we do have is well shaded by a sturdy tree that doesn’t belong to us. But we went to town on the low-temperature hydronic heat, double-glazed windows, and a staggering quantity of fiberglass batt. Our contractors cheerfullywent along with most of this, but were a little nonplussed at being asked to build garage doors that were four-inch-thick hollowboxes stuffed with insulation! (Between that and the skylight, the garage is now as livable as any other room in the house.)

My one regret is that we ended up using very few recycled materials, mostly for logistical reasons. We were, for example, looking forward to installing roof shingles made from discarded steel-belted tires, until we were told that freight charges would about double their cost and would blow our budget straight out of the park. We also couldn’t get — or, more exactly, gave up on getting — fly-ash concrete.

We’re more than satisfied with RMI’s contribution to our renovation. Our cash savings are about $80 a month, including a $140 annual discount

on our homeowner’s insurance. But the most worthwhile improvement is in quality of life;there are now no cold or drafty spots anywhere in the house, and the double-pane windows cut the noise from outside by at least 10 decibels. Thank you, RMI.

Yours,Kip and Hilary CrosbyEl Cerrito, California

Pick up your copy at: www.rmi.org/store/pid385.php

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Marty Pickett,ExecutiveDirector

We at RMI arealways cognizantof our goal to get out RMI’s

“work” and “word” as broadly as possi-ble. Two significant and diverse develop-ments in that arena are happening as I write: collaboration with other entities,and recognition for our accomplish-ments on a national scale.

RMI’s credibility and track record overthe years have positioned us to partnerwith other leading organizations toensure that our work has the greatestpossible effectiveness and impact. RMI’smost recent collaborative relationship iswith the Urban Land Institute, the topglobal organization of and for real-estatedevelopers. Its new President, HarryFrampton, has chosen sustainability asa theme and directive for ULI during his tenure. This is a natural teamingeffort for RMI’s Green DevelopmentServices that has broken new groundfor years on “green” architecture andland use planning. We are excited aboutthe possibilities, recognizing that HarryFrampton has the respect and power toconvene the leaders in this industry who can help both RMI and ULI realize our mutual vision for more sustainablereal estate development.

RMI has also recently been notified that it is one of three finalists for theEnvironment Design Award of theNational Design Awards program of theCooper-Hewitt National DesignMuseum, Smithsonian Institution.Having been named one of three finalists(from twenty-five nominees) for this distinguished annual award is a wonder-ful achievement for RMI. The nomina-tion was based upon RMI’s work ingreen design, redesigning business andglobal security, and transforming thedesign of the energy sector, among otherdesign projects and methodology.

Please be on the lookout for RMI onthese two fronts, and the many othershighlighted throughout this newsletter.

Life at RMI

Building Partnerships, Receiving Recognition

Cam Burns,Editor

According to awell-circulated2001 EPA study,Our Built andNatural Environ-

ments (www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/pdf/built.pdf), the urbanization of the UnitedStates is one of its most pressing issues.

As the document reports, “many urbanareas have increased in size by fifty per-cent during the past thirty years, with theincrease in land development far outstrip-ping population increases.” Today roadstake up approximately 11.1 million acresof land (an area the size of Maryland andDelaware combined); buildings and park-ing lots take up between 1,910 and3,035 square miles (estimates vary), and

there are 74 million acres of urban landin the forty-eight contiguous states.

These are some mind-boggling numbers,and the adverse impacts of the greatPaving of America fall into every categoryof illness ever conceived, from physicaland societal diseases to economic andpolitical maladies. Worse, as a subheadin the March 2001 issue of ScientificAmerican put it, “Suburbia was a dreaminspired by revulsion to city life. Nowmany suburbs are just as crowded, andsprawl moves on.”

Clearly, we can’t just build it, trash it, andmove on — to wherever on might be.We have to build our civilizations betterso that the exoduses are fewer and smaller.

Luckily, we have the Urban Land Instituteand the U.S. Green Building Council.

The USGBC’s LEED™ rating system isbecoming the national yardstick for thebuilt environment, and ULI’s prodigiouspublications mean that anyone wanting to do good design has access to reliableand reputable information.

Just as carbon emissions regulations arelikely to become binding, I predict thatone day things like LEED ratings willbecome the minimum requirement for those creating built environments.Legally-required design reviews by gov-ernmental boards will include energyand resource consumption models, andstandards for our built environments willthankfully be raised a few notches — at least for now. RMI is pleased to beworking with both ULI and USGBC, and wish them well for the coming year.Now more than ever, the built environ-ment needs as much help as it can get.

Editor’s Notes

The Built Environment Needs Our Help

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Editor’s note: In thisand coming issues of RMI Solutions, we will profile formerRMI staff members.

For Greg Kats,day-to-day workregularly involves

advising governments and corporationsin energy efficiency and renewable energy deployment and investments andgreen design. Greg has counseled somehighly influential bodies, including theParliamentary Committee on Environ-mental Sustainability of the BritishHouse of Lords and the EnvironmentCommittee of the Hungarian Parliament.But not surprisingly, his first major workon energy was done at RMI.

Greg Kats came to RMI in 1987, afterfinishing simultaneous graduate programsat Stanford and Princeton. His connec-tion with RMI had roots in a chanceencounter a few years earlier. He’d beeninspired by meeting Amory Lovins andHunter Lovins in 1982 at the Universityof North Carolina in Chapel Hill, wherethe two had been speakers.

As a visiting scholar at RMI, Greg coau-thored with RMI researcher Dr. WillKeepin an influential 1988 Energy Policy article that compared the worth of nuclear energy with that of energyefficiency in combating climate change.At that time, as now, nuclear advocatesargued that nuclear energy, because itproduced electricity without carbonemissions, was the ideal solution to global warming. Greg and Will showedthat investing in nuclear power actuallyretards cuts in CO2 emissions by squan-dering capital that, if spent on cheaperoptions (such as energy efficiency),would have displaced more coal-burningper dollar. Their research showed that a dollar invested in energy efficiency displaces at least seven times as much

greenhouse gas emissions as a dollarinvested in nuclear power. This obviousopportunity-cost argument — economesefor “you can’t spend the same dollar on two different things at the same time, so each investment foregoes other potential investments” — had previouslybeen overlooked.

“That, to me, was just tremendously fun,”Greg said. “I found that RMI was just an exciting place to be, intellectually.”

Time off was exciting, too. Greg, an ex-wrestler, was never inactive. In theirspare time, Will was teaching Greg to flyin a two-seater Piper airplane co-ownedby Will and RMI staffers Hal Harveyand Rick Heede.

“We flew all over, including over the Colo-rado River, down between the canyonwalls,” he said. “It was pretty spectacular.”

Working for RMI also stimulated Greg’sinterest in environmental activism. After RMI, he spent about four years asa marketing manager for Reuters Europe,based in Paris, then Geneva and thenLondon, but continued to work on environmental boards. He soon had anopportunity to return to energy work full time.

During the Clinton Administration,Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary askedAmory Lovins to “loan” her a couple ofhis best energy people. She borrowedGreg and Dr. Joe Romm, but neverreturned them. Greg was soon DOE’ssenior advisor to the head of policy plan-ning and evaluation, becoming directorof financing for the $1.1-billion-a-yearOffice of Energy Efficiency andRenewable Energy. There he launchedand led the development of innovativefinancing initiatives to support cleanenergy projects. Among these projectswere a $50-million off-balance-sheetfinancing that allowed often poor

minority colleges to gain access to capital to do energy efficiency upgrades,and a $400-million loan to Russia thatwas the largest energy efficiency loanever. He also devised a national greenpower/insurance initiative that creates a synthetic insurance support for thegreen premium part of green power contracts — a very cost-effective risk-pooling and -management tool that theFinancial Times described as “remark-ably high leverage.” He further helpedpersuade the SEC to clear major obstaclesto the global expansion of U.S. energyservice companies.

Greg also initiated and led an inter-agency effort that secured a successfulU.S. position against funding of nuclearpower plants in Eastern Europe by theEuropean Bank for Reconstruction andDevelopment because these are not the lowest-cost option compared withuntapped energy efficiency potential. In 1995, Greg, still with DOE, co-foundedwith Prof. Arthur Rosenfeld (formerhead of Lawrence Berkeley NationalLaboratory’s buildings division and now a California Energy Commissioner) the International PerformanceMeasurement and VerificationProtocol. IPMVP is a globally recog-nized set of standards used to calculateand confirm the savings from energy-and water-saving investments, so theycan be aggregated and securitized —rather like devising the standard applica-tion forms and secondary markets thatnow make home mortgages so cheapand easily accessible. Greg served asmanager and chairman of the IPMVP

What Are You Doing?

Greg Kats, Capital E

C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 3 1

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“RMI is inspirational, both intellectually

and in terms of its physical beauty

which reminds us

... that man,

absent the environment, doesn’t exist,

and that we bear a responsibility

to maintain the environment

for future generations.”

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If you get up veryearly and visit theWindstar LandConservancy,where RMI’sSoutheast Annexis located, youmight witness a

collision of the Old West and the New.Here’s the scene: whooping and holler-ing and waving his hat, a stocky white-haired cowboy astride a four-wheeler circles and charges a small herd of unco-operative cattle. Bouncing around as ifhe were riding a wild horse, the cowboystartles the slow-witted beasts enough to move them, and they shamble off tothe next pasture. The ATV cowboy zipsto the edge of the meadow and begins to reposition a moveable solar-poweredelectric fence. That done, he moves on,heading for another job on another part of the property. His cowboy hat disappears in a swirl of dust.

Meet Red Cain, RMI’s resident ATVcowboy. One of the few early risers atRMI, Red is at the office at 6 a.m. everyday, working with the cattle and irriga-tion in the summer and plowing snowand adjusting the solar heating systemsin the winter. Red is a carpenter, mason,plumber, electrician, and handyman. He builds partitions and shelves, main-tains the gravel drives and parking lots,

moves whatever needs to be moved, and fixes everything that’s busted — and he also hands out friendly, down-to-earth advice to young staff members.

Despite all these roles, fishing is Red’sbiggest passion these days, and thoughhe’ll probably take it up full-time inabout three years, he’s not quite readyyet to give up riding around like ayoungster on that ATV.

Red spent his early years in Kansas. Justout of high school, he took a job puttingup steel grain-storage buildings, and thenworked in the horse-racing business forfive years as an exercise boy and groom.

Red joined the Seabees, the Navy’s con-struction outfit, and completed trainingschools in all the building trades. He didthree tours of duty in Viet Nam andanother in Alaska. His outfit was sent toKodiak Island for seven months to rebuildafter the earthquake of 1964, and workednot only on military installations but alsoon civilian houses and businesses.

Red has lived in the Roaring Fork Valleynear RMI since 1968, a year after hemarried his sweetheart Sharon. TheCains bought a five-acre patch in theCrystal Springs area near Carbondale in1970, built a house there in 1972, andraised three sons.

The greatest change Red has seen in thevalley are the hordes of people moving

in. But the weather has changed, too, he said.

“It was nothing to shovel 55 inches ofsnow off my roof in January, and thenmore in spring,” he said. “We don’t seeheavy snows any more.”

Continuing his career in the constructionindustry, Red built concrete forms for fifteen years.

He worked on the Fryingpan-ArkansasProject for several years, building the mas-sive concrete water diversion structuresthat take Western Slope water to FrontRange cities. He plied other trades as well,building a career with his hands beforestarting to work at RMI in 1995.

While most RMItes are well-practiced inthe art of protecting the natural worldthrough efficiency and the smart use ofresources, most of us like to get out andenjoy it as much as we can, too. Red isno different. He has been a devoted out-doorsman since his childhood in Kansas.

“We went fishing and hunting all thetime when I was a kid,” he said. Nowhe fishes every chance he gets — hisvacations are devoted to angling, as aremost of his weekends. “I go fishingsomewhere every other weekend allsummer long,” he said. And meanwhile,he keeps RMI working well.

—Jeremy Heiman

Staff Spotlight

Red Cain, RMI Maintenance Department

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U.S. State Dept.Touting Capitalismo NaturalAs readers know, President Clinton was a big fan of RMI’s 1999 book Natural Capitalism, and it appears the

current Administration likes the book too. The U.S. State Department is still hosting an excellent Spanishtranslation of Chapter One of Capitalismo Natural on its website, at http://usinfo.state.gov/espanol/sustain/capitalsp.htm. This is all the more gratifying because, remarkably, the book’s dozen languages

don’t yet include Spanish or French. When renowned sustainability leader Paolo Lugari was visiting RMI (see p. 10) he pointed out the website to RMI CEO Amory Lovins. “We obviously have some friends there,” Lovins noted.

“Now all we need is the other fourteen chapters en español.”

RMI in the news

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By Dr. Patrick Kociolek

Golden Gate Park is undergoinga dramatic transformation asvarious scientific and arts

facilities are reconfigured, rebuilt, and reopened. The rebuilding of theCalifornia Academy of Sciences repre-sents a major part of this revitaliza-tion. How we realize a new facility iscritical to not only our staff and scien-tists — the new Academy must be aleader in the presentation of scienceand the communication of scientificconcepts to millions of people. Wealso hope our new facility will becomea masterful and innovative expressionof contemporary architecture.

Plans for the new Academy began as a response to damage caused by the1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. But aswe talked to people about our facility,programs, and exhibits, we realizedwe faced a much bigger challengethan patching leaky roofs and makingour facility seismically safe. Scienceand environmental research are goingthrough a revolution. People feel theyare losing ground in understandingscience and scientific advances. As the Academy marks our 150thanniversary, I can’t imagine a morecritical time for our institution to help address the challenges of achanging world.

As we began our planning process, we talked with officials at more than a dozen natural history museumsundergoing renovation or expansionprojects. Fueled by the rapid growthof biodiversity and conservation issuesand a burgeoning of science-basedindustries, awareness is growingabout the crucial role science muse-

ums play in education and environ-mental conservation. We learned that to excite visitors about sciencerequires a different approach than the static, Victorian-era model used by most of the world’s natural historymuseums.

The Academy’s board of trustees and Ispent many months gathering ideasand opinions of Academy staff, BayArea residents, scientists, educators,and environmentalists to understandhow to communicate scientific issues.

Because it has a natural history muse-um, an aquarium, and a planetarium,the Academy is unique. The combina-tion allows us to tell the story of howthe universe, the earth, and theoceans all function in an integratedsystem. Yet, despite the monolithicfront, the Academy is actually an amal-gam of twelve separate buildings, and

integrating the Academy into a unifiedcomplex became one of our chal-lenges. Further adding to the complex-ity of the project are the Academy’sholdings of more than eighteen millionnatural history specimens — plants,animals, minerals, and archaeologicalartifacts that all tell of the history andevolution of the world.

As we developed these aspirationsand the vision of what the newAcademy could be, we began to lookfor an architect who could design abuilding that would enable us toachieve these goals. Most of the archi-tects we interviewed arrived withminions and models and fully devel-oped ideas of what they thought ourbuilding, and the Academy, should be.

But one architect, Renzo Piano, stood out. Piano came by himself,with only a sketchpad and a greenfelt-tip pen. Instead of explaining hisdesign for the new Academy, Pianosimply asked what the Academy’sethic was. His portfolio was not char-acterized by a single signature style —each project possessed sensitivity tothe needs of his clients and pushedthe boundaries of esthetics, engineer-ing, and technology to meet thoseneeds. We immediately knew Pianowas our architect. We were also committed to having a local architectform part of the team, and choseGordon H. Chong, a creative, innova-tive local designer with a deep under-standing of San Francisco.

RMISolutionsF a l l / W i n t e r 2 0 0 3

California’s NewAcademy of Sciences

“Architect Renzo Piano

came by himself,

with only a sketchpad

and

a green

felt-tip pen.”

Other Voices

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Lifting Up a Piece of the Park

From the first time he visited theAcademy, Piano could often be foundoutside, sitting on the concourse or infront of the former de Young Museumor atop the Academy’s patch-mottledroof, observing and sketching. Wewanted the new Academy to become aharmonious part of the park, and notrise above the current height ofAfrican Hall (approximately 40 feet).Piano designed a curving rooflineechoing the contours of the landscape.The initial concept evolved into a

“green roof,” which offers a balance ofecological, aesthetic, and energy effi-ciency benefits. Covered with morethan two and a half acres of nativeplant species, it will, in Piano’s words,be like “lifting up a piece of the parkand putting a building under it.” A visit to the new Academy will nolonger mean feeling isolated from theoutdoors. Glass curtain walls and glassexpanses on the roof will allow naturallight into the interior. This abundanceof natural light, a characteristic ofmost of Piano’s buildings, will offer an alternative to electric lighting andwill enhance the visitor experience.Sensitivity to the Academy’s history isequally important, and the design callsfor integrating the elements of severalbuildings that embody the Academy’srich history.

The design also reflects a close collab-oration between the architects andexhibition designers. This lively col-laboration prompted both groups tocome up with more imaginative ideasthan either would have developedworking in isolation. Interesting to

me as a scientist, this collaborativedesign effort mirrored the best type of collaborative research, with eachgroup offering its specific expertise to achieve a greater overall concept.With form and function being consid-ered in unison, the undulations in theroof were altered slightly so that theywill slope over two major exhibitions:a new Morrison Planetarium and anenormous fish tank. Plans for the fishtank evolved into a 225,000-gallonexhibit of a Philippine coral reef thatwill stretch between a lower level andthe ground floor. A multi-level, glass-enclosed, living rainforest will belocated opposite the new planetarium.

New structures will house scientists,collections, staff, and classrooms. The courtyard, currently exposed tothe elements, will be redesigned for year-round use. Areas for variousactivities will be arranged around the “piazza,” an ideal area for visitorsto gather. The buildings will be con-nected by glass façades, and the rollingroof will cover the entire complex, unifying the various parts of the facility.

A Green Academy

From Madagascar to the San FranciscoBay, Academy scientists discover, collect, and study animals and plantsto establish baseline data that inform our understanding of the species thatco-exist with us, their place in evolu-tion, and conservation management.This work has become increasinglyimportant as the earth’s diverse life-forms and environments are altered orobliterated by human activity.

The new Academy is one of ten pilot “green building” projects of theSan Francisco Department of theEnvironment, part of a vanguard initiative to develop models for work-able, sustainable public architecture.The new Academy will be a high-per-formance building that makes optimaluse of resources, minimizes environ-mental impacts, and serves as an edu-cational tool by demonstrating howhumans can live and work in environ-mentally responsible ways. To help usachieve our ambitious goals, we haveretained Rocky Mountain Institute,whose Green Development Servicesteam has consulted on more than 300 projects worldwide, including the “greening” of the White House,Lucasfilm’s Presidio studios, and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Village.While there are varying shades ofgreen as measured by the U.S. GreenBuilding Council through its LEED™

(Leadership in Energy and Environ-mental Design) rating system, the Academy will strive to achieve the highest: LEED platinum. The sustainability features planned for the new Academy can easily beunderstood when compared to a stan-dard building. For instance, whereasstandard buildings do not capture ortreat stormwater, the green roof of theAcademy will reduce runoff by at least50 percent (possibly as much as two

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Other Voices

“Through very thoughtful design

and careful integration of systems,

the new Academy

will achieve a high level of performance

without costing any more to build

than a standard building.”

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million gallons of water per year) —water that would otherwise carry salt,sand, soil, pesticides, fertilizers, oil,litter, and other pollutants into nearbywaterways. The green roof of nativeCalifornia plant species will provideexcellent insulation and increase bio-diversity by offering habitat for honey-bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies.

Though cutting-edge technology willbe apparent in the new Academy, we will also employ the age-old engi-neering techniques of daylight and nat-ural ventilation. Large-but-controllableareas of glass in the façades and theroof will let daylight into offices,research, and exhibition areas, reduc-ing energy use and heat gain fromelectric lighting. These areas will alsohave windows that can be opened —which is unusual today — decreasingthe use of mechanical systems. The Academy will use approximately 50 percent less energy than Californiacodes allow a standard building to con-sume. Some of this energy will comefrom clean, renewable sources, mean-ing a significant reduction in pollution.

Besides saving energy, daylighting andnatural ventilation systems will make

the interior of the building more comfortable. The design team is alsocarefully selecting healthy, non-toxicbuilding materials that do not causeindoor air pollution. An improvedindoor environment will not only benefit staff and visitors; the Academycan also expect higher levels of productivity and lower levels of staffabsenteeism.

Through very thoughtful design and careful integration of systems, the new Academy will achieve a high level of performance withoutcosting any more to build than a standard building. More importantly,over the next hundred years the new building will pay enormous dividends by reducing operating and

maintenance costs by as much as 60 percent below those for a standardbuilding. This “return on invest-ment” will further support theAcademy’s work.

Understanding science is absolutelyessential for participating in ourdemocracy, for without that knowl-edge, individuals become alienatednot only from the discussion of issuesthat affect them, but from the commu-nity itself. Understanding scienceenables people to make informeddecisions on such issues as energyconsumption, the conservation of natural resources, environmental concerns, their health care, and othercomplex problems. The Academy hasa profound responsibility to provide the information to frame and leadthese deliberations and to help findsensitive, workable solutions.

And as a California-based institution,our responsibility is a special one.

The Bay Area has been a leader ofAmerican culture since before theCity of San Francisco was founded.We have led the nation in the appre-ciation of diverse lifestyles, rock androll, fusion cuisine, viniculture, andin the sartorial takeover of blue jeans.And this region has been a leader inscience-based industries from com-puter software to communicationstechnology to biotechnology. But mostof all, we are leaders in environmen-tal issues and conservation. Longbefore the rest of America, we under-stood that was critical to protect thenatural world. In few other parts ofthe country is there such a heartfeltsense of the beauty of the naturalworld and the need to safeguard it.That’s really what the Academy proj-ect is about: inspiring future genera-tions to discover, celebrate, and pro-tect the astonishing splendor of theliving world.

21

Other Voices

About the AuthorDr. Patrick Kociolek is the ExecutiveDirector of theCalifornia Academy ofSciences and WilliamR. and Gretchen B.

Kimball Chair. He is also a research scientist and holds the Hanna Chair indiatom studies.

The CAS “green roof” in context (above, below left).Photo and drawing: courtesy Renzo Piano Building Workshop

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Brian Rosborough’s first career, invest-ment banking, provided him with excellent background for his secondcareer: raising capital for scientific and environmental research and socialentrepreneurship.

“I made a ‘lateral arabesque’ from invest-ment banking into social venture capital,”Rosborough said. A founder and formerchairman and CEO of EarthwatchInstitute, Rosborough has been associat-ed with the organization for twenty-fiveyears. (He is also former editor ofEarthwatch magazine.) Earthwatch is a nonprofit that locates funds to support scientific research worldwide.Earthwatch-funded projects have provid-ed improvements in public health, overseen the discovery of new species,and mandated protection for coastlinesand threatened marine mammals.Rosborough remains a member ofEarthwatch’s board of trustees.

Rosborough is also a member of RMI’sboard of directors, and said that his workwith Earthwatch led to his connectionwith RMI. He met Amory and HunterLovins about fifteen years ago and sawthem regularly at conferences, oftenwhen all three were featured speakers.RMI’s work had numerous similarities toEarthwatch’s work, which is also directedat the efficient use of resources and theconservation of dwindling ones.

“That was the nexuswith RMI,”Rosboroughsaid. “We were both interested in use and abuse of the resource base.” Earthwatch is builton the premise that scientists and schol-ars, like entrepreneurs, need seed capitaland manpower to achieve their objec-tives. Earthwatch furnishes both, and theorganization has funded 2,500 scientificexpeditions in 120 countries to date.

Rosborough co-chairs the RMI board ofdirectors’ Development Committee. From that seat, he’s in a position to influ-ence the progress of some of his favoriteRMI projects. Some activities he particu-larly admires include RMI’s biomimicryresearch, education efforts, energyresearch — notably the work that led tothe publication of Small Is Profitable —and pretty much anything in the way of green development. “A better andmore efficient built environment is need-ed for our successors,” he said.

Also, RMI’s organizational form appeals to him. “RMI is exciting,” he said.

“The Institute is an innovator.” Counselingthat resource efficiency increases profitsoffers the best of all worlds to clients.

“Return on the client’s investment isimportant,” he said. He believes deeply in RMI’s work, which he describes as “ayeasty blend of evangelism, civic enter-prise, and pragmatic advice to industryand government.”

Brian’s goals for the Institute includeassisting in the strategic planning process,so that the Institute continues to thrive.

“All organizations, during periods of rapidgrowth, need to redefine their missionconstantly,” he said, noting that supportfrom an advisory board is as important asleadership and policy advice.

As a board member, he feels it’s necessary “to listen thoughtfully to plans and strate-gies, to ask the right questions, and tosupport the work of the professionals onthe staff.”

Rosborough’s vision for RMI includes continuing to offer solutions that deliveroriginality to clients and sponsors whilemeeting the highest standards of effective-ness and reliability.

Rosborough has a bachelor’s degree inhistory from Princeton and a law degreefrom the University of Florida. Hisresume includes a stint as a naval officerand some time as a merchant seaman.His service on boards is not limited toRMI and Earthwatch — he is a trusteeof Deerfield Academy and the BostonFulbright Committee, and a past trusteeof Princeton University and Mt. HolyokeCollege.

Rosborough’s current work is an exten-sion of his work at Earthwatch — he’s creating programs for innovators in devel-oping countries, working in the areas of information technology, health, educa-tion, and environmental services with the United Nations.

He spends considerable time keeping upwith “the young ones,” he said, and his rare spare moment is spent reading or “looking for my next noble pursuit.” In the meantime, though, he and his wife Lucy, from their home in Concord, Massachusetts, are on board with us inthe Rockies.

“I love RMI,” he said. “It’s refreshing,working with people who don’t believe it can’t be done.” For, as Henry Ford put it, “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’ll beexactly right.”

—Jeremy Heiman

Board Spotlight

“It’s refreshing,

working with people who don’t believe

it can’t be done.”

Brian Rosborough

Brian (with balloon and curious kids)in China.

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Eric Konheim might have been one ofRMI’s greatest supporters. He was abeliever in the Institute’s mission, andtook RMI’s message of resource efficiencyand shared it — in his own style, often-times in the form of recycling efforts —with the world. Eric was so devoted to RMI that today, twelve years after his death in a kayaking accident, the Konheim Internship is one of the most sought-after by college-aged appli-cants hoping to work at the Institute. Not surprisingly, one of the people Eric influenced most was his father, Bud Konheim, who has not only carriedon Eric’s tradition of support with RMI,but has also spread RMI’s work through-out his networks in the fashion industryand in the greater New York city area.

“When Eric died I had a choice of wal-lowing in the emotional distress and mysense of personal devastation or trying touse the intensity of my feeling to ‘keepEric alive’ by furthering his support ofRMI,” Bud said recently. “After twelveyears, RMI’s success in its field hasrewarded my efforts and has made methink even more of Eric who identified it in its early years. The high level ofKonheim Interns, and their yearly contri-bution to the ‘art of a healthy environ-ment,’ makes me proud to have Eric’sname attached to it.”

Bud Konheim grew up in Woodsburgh,NY (pop. 805), one of a larger group of communities loosely called “the fivetowns” on the south shore of LongIsland. “I went through public schooluntil the ninth grade when I went awayto Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter,New Hampshire,” he said. “For fouryears at Exeter I was always in somekind of behavioral trouble. I was grow-ing up from fourteen to eighteen andacting out for the merriment of my class-mates and the distress of the faculty.

Somehow I managed to get a first-classeducation and, as important, a real senseof right and wrong. This, coupled withmy parents’ training in ‘fairness,’ wasthe foundation for the rest of my life.”In 1953, Bud entered DartmouthCollege, in New Hampshire, though headmits he “had not quite grown up” andstudy took a back seat to “leisure activi-ties.” One act of misconduct led to aone-semester suspension — “needless tosay it cured my behavior and I returnedto graduate in 1957.”

The late 1950s was a time when manyyoung men were going into militaryservice. The Korean War had recentlyended, and like many others of his gen-eration, Bud decided to join the U.S.Marine Corps in 1958. Boot camp atParris Island, SC was, next to Exeter

“the best education and training I’ve ever had.”

Bud was promoted meritoriously to PFCin one month and won the platoon’s

“Blues Award” (a set of dress blues). Hewas also voted “outstanding man” in hisplatoon, and shot high on the range —accomplishments for which he is asproud as “anything else I have done inthe forty-five years since.”

Bud remained in the Marines for six years, then went to work in his father’sapparel manufacturing business. A careerof making boxes out of corrugated card-board was supplanted by a career as a

traveling salesman. Bud was married in1962, thankfully putting an end to theconstant traveling. Eric was born in1963 and Alex in 1965. “They were thelove of my life and I invested practicallyall my leisure time passing on the father-son pieces of experience andknowledge one cannot get from school:boats, camping, appreciation for nature,”he said.

In 1955 Bud’s mother had started anapparel business that was an instant suc-cess, and in 1970 she bought Bud’sfather’s business. Bud, his father, and hisbrother all started working for her.

One thing led to another and the busi-ness grew, but one day Bud’s mother got sick and could not continue. Budwent out on his own and the result wasNicole Miller, an apparel firm thatthrives on product differentiation bydesign. According to Bud, while most ofthe apparel industry is self-destructivebecause it emphasizes price, NicoleMiller has been successful because thefirm sees the opportunity and value ingreat design and product.

“In that way its business philosophy issimilar to RMI’s philosophy,” he said.

“Neither company accepts the prevailingcustoms as the truth, and both compa-nies try to innovate solutions. This hasmade it easier for Nicole Miller to attractpeople to RMI, since it is more or lessthe same audience. As a yearly routine,everyone who is considered a ‘friend’ ofNicole Miller is solicited to become afriend of RMI.”

We at RMI never got to know Eric, but from his parents, we can begin toguess what a remarkable young man he was, and be proud that he thoughtwell of our work.

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Donor Spotlight

Bud Konheim: Growing a Chrysalis

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One of the odd things about RMI is howwell the Institute is known globally, yethow little it’s known in the Roaring ForkValley of Colorado, the Institute’s ownbackyard. Now a couple of enterprisingAspen area residents are helping to raiseRMI’s profile and to provide a way forindividual donors to be more “hands on”through a new entity, RMI’s NationalSolutions Council (NSC). Although theNSC was first introduced in the RoaringFork Valley, it will be open to RMI supporters from all over the country.

Elaine LeBuhn and Kathy Finley, co-chairs of the NSC, have vast experienceat gathering momentum behind a goodcause, and recently joined forces to giveRMI greater prominence among thebusiness and community leaders who, at least part of the time, call this valleyhome. Kathy and Elaine believe the NSC provides an ideal venue for peoplelike themselves who want to help bepart of the solutions that RMI hatches and propogates.

Specifically, the mission of the Council is to “promote RMI’s work by initiatingrelationships with individuals on anational level, represent the interests ofRMI in members’ geographic regions,broaden the base of financial support forRMI, and sponsor specific RMI projects.”

Certainly the National Solutions Councilis starting under solid leadership. Elaine,who lives part-time in New York andpart-time in Snowmass Village, is familiarwith RMI supporters and RMI, as shehas served on RMI’s board of directorssince October 2002.

Elaine brings a strong background in nonprofit and public interest work toRMI, including serving on the Patron’sCouncil of Carnegie Hall and on the board of directors of the Rainforest

Alliance. On the board of NationalPublic Radio, Elaine chairs the gifts and contributions committee and serves as liaison and chair of itsPresident’s Council.

She was director of development for the Aspen Institute for ten years. Shelearned of RMI both through her workin Aspen and via her husband, RobertLeBuhn, Board Chair of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation which also fundsRMI. Elaine is also very involved withthe Aspen Music Festival and School and co-chairs its 2003 and 2004 annual benefit. She’s on the executive commit-tee of the Maestro Circle of the MusicFestival — a group dedicated to provid-ing funds for student scholarships.

Kathy, who lives part-time in Aspen andpart-time in Chicago, is a more recentmember of the RMI family. “I becameinterested in RMI after 9/11,” she said.

“I wanted to become part of a solution,rather than be a spectator to a continu-ous struggle for limited energy resources.I researched and ‘discovered’ RMI. I wasshocked that such an impressive institu-tion was right in our midst. So I, likeElaine, wanted to make an effort to educate Aspenites about the great andimportant work being done here.”

Kathy is originally from LaPorte, Indiana.After earning a degree in Spanish fromthe University of Colorado, Kathy went

on to become a trader on the ChicagoBoard of Options Exchange and later joined Paine Webber, heading upthe institutional options division for the Midwest.

A longtime Chicago resident, Kathy haschaired various charitable events, includ-ing the Rita Hayworth Gala (for theNational Alzheimer’s Association), the Literary Arts Ball (for the Friends ofthe Chicago Public Library), and others.For the past five years, she has beenPresident of the Development Board forPAWS (Pets are Worth Saving).

“Everyone has their own area of expo-sure,” Kathy added. “The NationalSolutions Council will provide a socialavenue for spreading the word, but per-haps more importantly, we plan for theNSC to sponsor a specific project at RMIto add ‘ownership’ of a project as part ofthe benefits of membership.”

“I believe in the mission of RMI and amhonored to be part of the organization,”Elaine said. “It is a thrill when I can puta staff member in contact with a friendor colleague who has a question, know-ing it will be handled professionally and quickly. I hope the National Solu-tions Council extends that type of publicservice to the greater community.”

This summer’s receptions for prospectivemembers were hosted by Gerald Hosier,a renowned patent attorney, and AlexKaufman of Kaufman Holdings Corpora-tion. Both events featured RMI CEOAmory Lovins. Approximately 120 peo-ple attended the events, a number ofwhom committed to joining the NSC.

RMI is always looking for innovative waysto share its message with the world. The remarkable talent that the NationalSolutions Council is mobilizing willaccelerate the Institute’s success.

Kathy Finley and Elaine LeBuhn.

RMI Supporters form National Solutions CouncilL O C A L D U O K I C K S O F F M A J O R ‘ G E T- T H E - W O R D - O U T ’ E F F O R T

RMI Supporters

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Dale Levy,DevelopmentDirector

As RMI staff members often note, young people are our future. Studentsfrom two Colorado schools have shownthey’re concerned about everyone’sfuture, and recently donated $5,000 toRMI. The donations originated with the Colorado Springs-based El PomarFoundation which, as part of its EPYCS program (El Pomar Youth inCommunity Service), gave 121 highschools $10,000 each, a total of $1.2million, for their students to distribute to nonprofit organizations of their choosing. RMI submitted proposals toCarbondale-based Colorado RockyMountain School (CRMS) and to BattleMountain High School (BMHS), locatedin nearby Eagle County.

“Once a school is selected to be in theprogram, the students fulfill severalrequired activities” in a given year,explained Terry Lee, CRMS’s Develop-ment Director. “They poll the studentbody to gather information on their top areas of interest and write a missionstatement. The El Pomar Foundationsends out the mission statements fromall the schools to Colorado’s nonprofitorganizations, which then have the opportunity to apply for funding.”

RMI submitted a proposal for a conserva-tion project on the Windstar Land Con-servancy, and was awarded grants byCRMS students Greg Bartlowmiejczuk,Michael Colangelo, Tipper Hassig,Emma Juniper, and Lisa Weir, and BMHSstudents Tyler Custer, Mallory Denker,Casey Goodman, Nicole LeRoy, HeatherOsborne, Trisha Salazar, Teresa Sanchez,Lee Sandoval, Roberto Sandoval, JeffSavonen, and Kim White.

The project includes monitoring andmaintenance on the 957-acre WindstarLand Conservancy, so RMI can continueits research and implementation of sustainable and holistic land manage-ment practices.

“They felt the project fit their missionstatement, which focused on the envi-ronment with an emphasis on educationand preservation,” said Lee. “They alsofelt the Windstar project could affectmany people.”

According to Heather Ojala of BMHS,the Battle Mountain students also feltRMI’s efforts related closely to theschool’s EPYCS mission statement,which focuses on preservation of theenvironment.

“The most important aspect of RMI’swork would be the conservation of landfor the future, for wildlife, and the protection of open space,” Ojala said.

“Students liked that you were also working to rehabilitate lands that havealready been injured by human misuse.They wanted to be a part of fundingthese continuing projects.”

“Students wanted to be

a part of funding these

continuing projects.”

Heather Ojala

Battle Mountain High School studentsinvolved in RMI’s EPYCS grantinclude (l-r): Casey Goodman, HeatherOsborne, Mallory Denker, and TrishaSalazar. Program advisor HeatherOjala is in the center.

Colorado Rocky Mountain School students (top row, l-r): Jennifer Gee (faculty),Christopher Hassig, Greg Bartlomiejczuk, Josh Buchman, Michael Colangelo, Terry Lee (faculty); (bottom row, l-r) Emma Juniper, Jessica Meister

Colorado Rocky Mountain School and BattleMountain High School Support RMI

RMI Supporters

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Our sincere apprecia-tion is offered to these friends who have contributed to RMIbetween 1 May 2003 and31 August 2003. Numbersin parentheses indicatemultiple donations.Please let us know ifyour name has beenomitted or misspelled so it can be corrected in the next issue.

BENEFACTORS$10,000+ARIA FoundationCarol & William BealeThe Educational Foundation

of AmericaAndre T. Heinz, Heinz EndowmentsWilliam & Flora Hewlett

FoundationThe Joyce FoundationAdam Lewis & Christie Interlante,

Helen and Joseph Lewis Fund Sandler Family Supporting

Foundation

PATRONS $1,000 – $9,999Sharman & David AltshulerAnonymous (1)Lina & Aharon Castro (2),

Castro Model, Ltd., in memory ofEric Konheim

Sally R. Cole & Dean AmbroseHoward P. Colhoun

Family FoundationE. Kyle Datta,

New Energy Partners, Inc.Earth ShareEl Pomar Youth in Community

Service & Battle Mountain High School

El Pomar Youth in Community Service & Colorado RockyMountain School

Fanwood FoundationJohn B. Gilpin

Ted L. Goudvis, Pathfinder FundMichael Gould, Bloomingdale’s,

in memory of Eric KonheimDavid Haas & Mary Ellen Arvold,

Liz Haas Memorial FundStephen P. Hanson,

in memory of Eric KonheimJennifer Susan HawksGerald HosierCharles Kaplan,

The Mayer & Morris KaplanFamily Foundation

Bud & Colleen Konheim,Nicole Miller, in memory of Eric Konheim

Carolyn Konheim & Brian Ketcham,Konheim & Ketcham,in memory of Eric Konheim

Colleen Konheim,in memory of Eric Konheim

Thomas C. & Sarah K. KonradCarolyn & Clarence LangeThe Leighty FoundationAlan Luedtke,

DuPont Commercial Flooring’sSustainable Growth Award program

Microsoft Matching Gifts (2)Hideo Miki, Sankyo Seiko Co., Ltd.,

in memory of Eric KonheimMary Sue & William F. MorrillNew Millenium CommunicationsNewCars.com (4)LaVelle Olexa, Lord and Taylor,

in memory of Eric KonheimBetty & Anthony P. PennockCoyote PhoenixNancy & George J. RecordsMark Ryan,

DuPont Commercial Flooring'sSustainable Growth Award program

Arent H. Schuyler, Jr.

SPONSORS $100 – $999Thomas D. AdcroftJohn L. AllenDaniel AlpertDr. & Mrs. John R. Anderson

Chester A. Andrews, Oberlin CollegeClinton J. AndrewsLeslie & J.F. BakenJudith Barnard & Michael FainJoanne & Richard H. BarsantiReid Bennett, FlexitoysEd BergAlan K. Betts & Karen JamesStephen W. Biegel,

in memory of Eric KonheimLeland S. BlackWilliam & Sandra Bliss (4)Dorothy & Richard C. BradleyPatti & Jules D. Burgevin,

J & P ConsultingShelley Burke, Starry PinesJudith A. Byrns & Joe L. Bergquist,

Notable Plantings, Inc.Louise CandelariaDaniel J. & Terri A. Caplan,

Caplan Family FundJohn Patrick Carroll (4)Rita & Frank Castagna,

in memory of Eric KonheimDuke & Jan Castle,

The Castle GroupeFreddy & Rosita Choi,

Fred Simon & Company, Ltd.,in memory of Eric Konheim

Todd Ciaravino,in memory of Eric Konheim

Atlee F. ClappAnne K. ClareJoan K. & Harold K. ClaybornCarole & Peter ClumMichael F. & Linda M. CoadyVirginia M. CollierPeter J. CondakesSam Cox & Julia PuchkoffBarbara & Stephen J. Crandall,

in memory of Phil SemmerJulie & John S. DanielWilliam D. & Bonnie Bartlett

Daniels, in memory of EricKonheim

Lois-ellin Datta (4)Mary Alice DeBoltWilliam A. Decker, Sr.Libby Dietrich & David Boorkman

Eric Lin Doub,Ecofutures Building, Inc.

Mary K. Dougherty & Erik Neumann,in memory of Eric Konheim

Mary & James V. DowntonJaren & Bruce Ducker,

in memory of Eric KonheimNiko ElmalehJohn Ewer & Kathleen E. WhitlockJay Faillace,

in memory of Eric KonheimFensterstock & Partners, LLP,

in memory of Eric KonheimHoney S. Fishman,

in memory of Eric KonheimCornelia & Jan Flora,

in memory of May and Carroll Butler

Judy & Kenneth G. FootAnn M. & Neal J. ForsthoefelGloria & Robert F. FoxRobert Fox, Cook & Fox ArchitectsMartha & Ralph E. FredeKatherine & Paul W. Gerke,

Gerke Family Charity FundJenifer & P.M. Gibbons,

in memory of Eric KonheimCheryl & Steve GoldenbergStone Gossard,

in honor of the green revolutionJoshua Greenberg,The CitigroupPrivate Bank,

in memory of Eric KonheimRichard C. Griggs,

in memory of Eric KonheimKathy & Robert H. Gurland,

in memory of Eric KonheimJanet Guthrie & Warren LevineHenry Hacker,

Lifestyle Marketing Group, LLC,in memory of Eric Konheim

Eldon Haines & Linda RoseJohn W. Hancock, III,

Hancock Family TrustJoseph Harari,

Basic Resources, Inc., in memoryof Eric Konheim

Gary & Rae Ann Hassell,Baker Creek School House

RMI Supporters

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Terry HatchGary Herwitz,

Fashion Roundtable, Inc.,in memory of Eric Konheim

Hewlett Packard Employee GivingPeggy HillCaroline P. Hirsch,

in memory of Eric KonheimGeorge & June HisMichael P. HydroNancy Jackson & Eberhard RammLinda JeschkeDiane & Kurt JohnstonMaggie JonesCarol & Stephen Judelson,

in memory of Eric KonheimMark E. JuedemanJane & Joseph Kasov,

J.S.K. Design, Inc.,in memory of Eric Konheim

Brandon F. KettRobert A. KevanBernice & Charles C. KlostermanBarbara Kolb & Seymour August,

in memory of Eric KonheimSusan & Bruce Konheim,

The George Konheim Family Foundation,in memory of Eric Konheim

Carol & Thomas M. LammBrian L. Larsen & Renae KoffordRick A. LawrenceAnna L. LawsonKathleen & Charles Lea, Jr.,

in honor of Elaine LeBuhnDhalia & Laurence C. Leeds,

in memory of Eric KonheimRobert L. Lenzner,

in memory of Eric KonheimJohn P. LindermanIngrid A. LouiselleDaniel B. Lucachick, Fluid AppliedConstruction Technology,

in memory of Steve LucachickStefanie & KC Lyon, Nicole Miller,

in memory of Eric KonheimMichael L. MacDonald,

Mobil Wax Systems

Randy Michael Mastro & Jonine Lisa Bernstein,in memory of Eric Konheim

Warren P. McNaughtonCraig A. Melby (4)Audrey & Danny Meyer,

The Summer Fund,in memory of Eric Konheim

Nation MeyerNicole J. Miller & Kim Taipale,

Nicole Miller, Inc.,in memory of Eric Konheim

Michael MoonBrett A. NelsonBonnie & Joel NeymarkNike FoundationNorthwestern University - SEED,

in memory of Phil SemmerAllen J. Noveck,

in memory of Eric KonheimEd NystromElise M. O’ShaughnessySally O’ConnellPatricia O’ConnorAvis R. OgilvyPatricia & John Olds,

in memory of Eric KonheimMichael OpitzPhilip D. Pack,

in memory of Eric KonheimRichard H. PeeplesPolly Pierce, Dedham Land TrustPeter J. Powers,

Powers Global Strategies, LLC,in memory of Eric Konheim

Diana Prechter & Kent ColeNan Puryear,

Exquisite Apparel Corp.,in memory of Eric Konheim

Letitia S.C. QuinnJean G. & Dan I. Rather,

in memory of Eric KonheimArno & Carol Rayner,

The Rayner FoundationJohn M. Richardson, Jr.Gwen RodmanZella & Judith A. RohrbaughAbigail Rome,

in memory of Eva Glaser

Hope & Paul R. Rudnick,Rudnick Family Foundation, inhonor of Mr. and Mrs. JordanBittel’s anniversary and in mem-ory of Mrs. Diane Sloves’s father

Anita E. RusselLadd D. RutherfordElyssa & Jack Schecter,

in memory of Eric KonheimJudith SchectorDaniel J. & Lisa A. SchrefflerSherman Selden,

Pittsford Lumber & WoodshopThomas SeymoreCloud N. ShadowshotRobyn Sheehan,

Countryside Animal HospitalDwight K. Shellman, Jr.,

Shellman and OrnitzCarolyn & John ShurmanPhilip & Dorothy Silber,

in memory of Eric KonheimDouglas J. SmithWilliam & Rosie Smith, IIIJoseph & Sally Snyder, IVRobert H. SpenceJames StevensMary Wilder Stoertz &

Douglas H. GreenAlan J. & Gloria Gilbert Stoga,

in memory of Eric KonheimRichard L. SweeneyDennis & Sharon SweitzerT.R. Winston & Co., Inc.,

in memory of Eric KonheimMarjorie Thompson DuckLee & Marvin Traub,

in memory of Eric KonheimBeth B. & W. Henry TuckerMichael F. Uschold (2)Cheryl L. ValloneEleanor Wasson (2)David WebbSusan & Seward WeberDouglas & Lynda J. WeiserDon R. WestbrookMargaret & William E. WesterbeckBette J. & Perry R. Wilkes, Jr.

Jane Woodward & Kurt Ohms,in honor of the birth of Charles Long

Stephen YoungBarbara ZinnRobert Zirinsky,

Ralph Zirinsky Realty Co.,in memory of Eric Konheim

ASSOCIATES $1 – $99Deanne L. AdamsDavid Adamson, Eco Products,

in honor of the GDS staffPhilip AdiutoriAdobe Matching Gift ProgramEdna & Niels T. Andersen (3)Sally AndersenAnonymous (22)E. Coury ArmstrongMarilyn L. ArnoldJim Arnold, Jr.Diane & Wesley H. BaileyVictoria Balkoski & Paul WinkellerMichael BallardPaul BarnesPaul BartchEdna C. Bartlett &

Katherine B. GordonRex L. Bavousett & Jan A. MooreThomas A. BellBarbara & Lyle E. BergquistMarguerite P. BiermanGeorge BlakeyJacqueline Bogard &

Douglas James Bell, Jr.Sarah A. BondSylvia & Seymour BoorsteinRobert E. & Emily S. Boyle, IIIBarbara Brahm (4)Renata & Gary J. BrandGeorge Bremser, Jr.Richard R. Brigham &

Sally E. Stapp-BrighamLouise Brodman,

Edgewater ArchitectsKatherine & Russell K. BrownRobert A. BrownSheilah Bryan

RMI Supporters

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Alan T. & Susan BuckleyDouglas E. BurkeKerry & Mary BurnsWilliam D. Busick (4)Steve & Rosalind ChapmanJeff ChaseCheryl A. ChipmanRobert ChristyVictoria & John F. ClancyJohn ClarkLinda M. ClarkDavid ClarkRobert CohenDavid R. ConelySally & Joseph ConklinJudy, Bruce & Erin ConneryConsolidated Manufacturing, Inc.Matt & Grace D. CormonsTimothy CostelloJanice & Darrell CoyWilson CraigieDwight CrandellDavid CrawfordJohn CummingsCharles W. DahlgreenRichard DarlingCecile & Lawrence A. DavinoAndre DeBarCarol, Edward, & Kelsie DeFranciaRuth & Dennis DemmelMarilyn & Robert A. Derrickson, Jr.Alison C. &

A. Gardner Dee DeWitt, IIIBarbara DibelerDee Dee Diccicco-CraftAdrian DronkertMichael & Karen DurisinWilliam W. DurrellLloyd Eater & Terrie Frank PowersCarolyn S. Eldred & Dennis E. KrugPolly & John M. Ely, Jr.Valerie J. EricsenDiane C. EskewKim & Marshall EvansEberhard FahnrichMichael FancherDwayne R. FarleyRalph Faust, Jr.

Avis & Jeff FisherJames FitzpatrickTad S. FosterJohn & Julie Fox-RubinRoger France & FamilyKen FrankelMark Friedman (4)Rich GarigenElizabeth & Paul D. GehrisConstance & Al GetmanAlena Gilchrist,

City of San FranciscoCheri A. GlaserLeonore & Royal GlassmanRafeal Gonzalez-VizosoLinda K. Good, Equinox DesignRenuka & T GovindarajDoug & Peggy GraybealBobby GraysonTamara GreenlawSadja GreenwoodWesley A. GroesbeckRoderick B. GroomesJoyce & Charles HackenyosCharmaine & Kinard HadenChris & Curtis HamiltonCoreen & Scott HampsonJohn HandleyTerry D. Harbottle,

Global Business Network CanadaBarbara R. HardyK. Charles HartranftKathy & Kurt R. HeilmannBarbara J. HibbardRichard Hoenich (4)Bonny & Dwight Holmes,

in honor of Douglas HolmesKeith HonchellJohn Hoskyns-Abrahal,

Bullfrog Films, Inc.Patricia A. HubertyCheryl & James HunterDavid W. Inouye,

Rocky Mtn Biological LabMason Jensen (2)Linda & Peter JeschofnigBaylor JohnsonDana Judy & Susan A. Weisner

Debora & Keith KabackMildred J. & Carl P. Keiser, Jr.Lorna & Thomas R. KilianThomas E. KimmelAnne & Erik M. KindblomDolores & Tarver A. Kitchens, Jr.James B. Kless,

The Conservation CompanyWalter I. KnausenbergerAndrew KotilaCathleen KrahePatricia & Douglas A. Kramer,

in honor of Trevor KramerStephen G. KuhnLorene T. KuimelisJason LabranchLori & Mark C. LaCroixW. Keith & Ellen S. Lain (2)Jacque & Greg LantzDavid & Barbara T. LarsonThomas E. LarsonMary & Joseph M. LechugaTimothy LeddyRichard & Nancy Leeds,

in memory of Eric KonheimMaureen & Nick LenssenMarion & Warren P. Leonard,

Save Our World – VTNell F. LePlaCathleen LesetenCheri & Dave LevensonEd & Susanne LindgrenGretchen LiuzziKit LoeklePatricia Logan & Karl CitekJean LudtkeMargaret & Daniel S. LynchAnn MacLeod & Karen A. SignellRussell Malley & Tynka L. DeesCraig S. MankowskiMiriam & William A. MarshallThomas & Jane MatsonJohn McClaughry,

Institute for LibertySarah S. McCoyJames R. McCreaLaurie & Craig McDaniel

Allen McKenzie,AJM Design Group, Ltd.

Allison & Michael Thomas McPherson

Madeline McWhinney DaleMarcus Mello,

in honor of Aldo LeopoldFernando MendezSylvia & Sam MessinHarry Morel (2)V. Joe MoriceSuzanne & Donald MorrisonWilliam L. MortonGaard Moses, GaardgraphicByard W. Mosher, IVGeorgeann MossJeanne MuellerSteffen MuellerJacqueline A. NeurauterWilliam H. NewlinDaniel NicholsGenevieve & Morris J. NicholsonMichael NidelWendy & John Dirk NordbergJeannette & Robert NordhamJennifer L. & Philip O. Nubel

RMI Supporters

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WillsBelow is suggested word-ing for including RMI inyour will. But we suggestyou consult with yourattorney.

“I hereby leave _____ percent of my estate (or afixed amount, specificproperty or the remainderof my estate) to RockyMountain Institute, aColorado nonprofit corpora-tion, whose purpose is tofoster the efficient andrestorative use of resourcesto make the world secure,just, prosperous, and life sustaining.”

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William S. O’Donnell, Jr.Patrick OlsonJoseph & Joyce O’NeilJ. OosterlinckDouglas Porter OwenRichard PagetBill & Tina PalmisanoVirginia M. ParkerMary Alyce PearsonClayton PedersonJennifer PenneyJane Peters,

Research Into Action, Inc.Jerome PetersenDonna M. PetrangeloDiana & Gary G. PhelpsEdith & Steven J. PierceJohn Platt & Lisa HeilbronNeil & Melody PreisterCarol & William R. PriceRichard M. PuskarNan & Andrew QuirozKyra Raphaelidis,

in honor of Janus Raphaelidis and Wendy Morris

Janus Raphaelidis & Wendy Lynn Moore

Joseph E. ReidPhilip B. ReinhartTom RibeLawrence M. RiceJanine RickardLeonard Rifas & Mizue Fujinuma,

EducomicsLinda M. RightmireRichard Riseling,

Apple Pond Farming CenterRobin & David S. RittenhouseAlison A. & Richard R. Roach,

in memory of Phil Semmer andEleanor Velie

Bob & Sylvia RobertsonClay RockefellerMarietta & Pier Luigi RoselliniScott RothMartha Rounds & William ManningMark Rousseau & Leslie Wells

Sarah RubinStuart RuckerMonica L. RussellH. John RussellElisabeth K. RylandRenata E. SackCatherine I. SandellRob SargentTeresa M. Schader (2)Mark SchlangerMarlene W. &

Raymond H. SchneiderStan Schoen &

Barbara S. Day-SchoenRobert Sculthorpe,

Arxx Building ProductsWilliam L. SeaveyDavid G. SebekRosemary SennMark Shaffer, VentecDavid ShakespeareJoan & Charles A. ShapiroMarcia ShullSidney H. Simon,

The Simon Family TrustChantal SimonpietriJames R. SimpsonWalter Simpson &

Nancy Lampka SimpsonJulie SlagleJoy SleizerScott SmithCatherine R. SmithCharles J. SmithJanet M. SmithGeorge A. SmithNicholas SofiosJohn SomdeCerffGail & Gregory C. SpeerGeraldine St. OngeGalen StaengiEmployees of the Town of

Herndon, VA (2)Elaine V. StannardDorothy & Clarence StearnsKaren & Donald StearnsGary SteinbergGlenn Strong

Robert SultzerRoger F.ThomaDonald K.ThompsonToki & David C.ThompsonErin M.Thornley & Joseph T. ParisiJohn Tilton, Paperbacks PlusCharles J. & Rhoda TransueTerry & Gary TraunerStephanie TruesdaleDavid TupperAnn & John B. VautourWade VernonNancy & Tom Vineski,

Alternatives Solar EnergyWilliam Von Lackum, IIJane Walker PfisterJosephine & Eugene WalkowiakJanice Wall, in honor of Don WallJanelle & Gary J. WalterRichard C. WaltersGeorge H. WearNicholas WeberWendy & Richard WeeksScott WestbrookGerald R. WhitcombEric WhiteOsgood & Barbara WhittemoreGeoffry WickesMichael WiggenMarianne WilliamsJonathan WoodBarbara WylanCarolyn YaglePaul YoungGregory ZahradnikStephen ZellerJeanine ZemanJon Zuder, Arcade Productions

WINDSTAR LAND CONSERVANCYDONORSJill ArmitageGrace & Bryan T. Bailey (3),

in memory of John DenverChristine BehlAnnalisa BernsAnnalisa M. Berns,

in memory of John DenverEllen BigelowVictoria ContiFran EdwardsSarah GarrettJohn T. Getz,

in memory of John DenverMarina GreenSuzanne HotalingVicky HuerthBeth HussInge KaminskiJoan KurtzGabi KussMary Jane MaasJana McAlpinAnn Marie & James McCrone,

in memory of Rita and John Mulvihill

Kyle OsborneGary PhelpsPatricia & Ronni R. Ridenour,

in memory of John DenverCorrine SmithPamela D.TateDiane TinkerJulie & Kelvin Townsend,

Hearts in Harmony,in memory of John Denver

Debbie WaltMary L. WarrenMarjorie Sue Wells,

in memory of John DenverNoel WheartyRita Zalucha

We also want to thank those individuals who have contributed to RMI through Earth Share, the combinedfederal campaign, and other workplace charitable programs. If you would like to have RMI as a charitableoption in your workplace campaign, please contact our Development Department (970-927-3851).

RMI Supporters

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Unique challenges: The college is hop-ing to be very innovative with water and waste-water, and it hopes to have many of its compo-nents (PVs, turbines, etc.) manufactured inChina. Also, it’s near the university’s East Gate,in a very visible location. Add to that the factthat China has little modern green buildingdesign experience, and you’ve got a very gutsyjump into green design (like David Orr’s endeav-ors at Oberlin, only twenty times bigger).It is intended to be a demonstration building for the Chinese Olympic officials preparing for the 2008 summer games in Beijing.

RMI’s involvement: RMI has been advising on green facilities design, and recentlyparticipated in the Beijing charrette.

David Lawrence Convention CenterLocation: Pittsburgh

Architect: Rafael Viñoly and Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann

Size: 1.2 million square feet

Year: 2003

Client: Greater Pittsburgh Convention Services Department

Description/what’s special:This building is the biggest naturally-ventilatedand daylit exhibit hall in North America (seehttp://www.planpittsburgh.com/conventionCenter/greenBuildingBenefits.asp?p=2). It’s importantbecause its remarkable green features are alsowonderful form-givers — the green “features”aren’t merely tacked on. By mimicking the “ThreeSisters,” three suspension bridges that span the Allegheny River, architect Viñoly chose abeautiful curvilinear shape that would be bothbeautiful and conducive to natural ventilationand natural lighting.

Unique challenges: An important down-town location. (Designers are aiming for a LEEDgold rating.)

What has it shown/proved/done well? Saved energy. In fact, Pittsburgh officials estimate a 30–50 percent energy saving worthhundreds of thousands of dollars.

RMI’s involvement:Sustainability consultant.

California Academy of Sciences (CAS)Location: San Francisco

Architect: Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Size: 250,000 square feet

Year: The building is in design now (see p. 19).

Client: CAS

Description/what’s special: The Peking University building described aboveis certainly complex enough, but the new CASfacility will have a planetarium, an aquarium,a rainforest, storage for eighteen million natural history specimens, and conventionalexhibit space.The most attractive part of thisbuilding is the great big rolling green roof,and the re-creation of the location’s originallandscape.

Unique challenges: Being created for one of the oldest scientific institutions in California, this building has to reflect the public’s desire for scientific information inunderstandable formats. (Designers are aimingfor a LEED platinum rating.)

If built, what will it show/prove/do well?There is talk of employing photovoltaics as ahuge shade screen that extends all around thebuilding.The latest design estimates are that itcould produce 350 kW of electricity, but thoseare subject to change.

RMI’s involvement:Sustainability consultant.

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RMISolutionsRMI Solutions is published three times a yearand distributed to more than 10,000 readers (by mail and online) in the United States andthroughout the world. © 2003 Rocky MountainInstitute. All rights reserved.

Letters to the Editor

We want to hear your comments. Please address all correspondence to:

Cameron M. Burns, EditorRocky Mountain Institute1739 Snowmass Creek RoadSnowmass, CO 81654-9199tel: (970) 927-3851fax: (970) [email protected]

For reprint permission, please [email protected]. As a leader in promotingresource efficiency, RMI supports innovative recycled paper manufacturers. This publicationis printed on New Leaf EcoOffset (100% post-consumer waste, processed chlorine-free) usingvegetable-based ink. Contact New Leaf Paperfor more information, 1-888-989-5323. No new trees were used in the production ofthis newsletter, and we offer paperless electronicdelivery via our website or on request.

About the Institute

RMI is an entrepreneurial nonprofit organizationthat fosters the efficient and restorative use ofnatural, human and other capital to make theworld secure, just, prosperous, and life sustaining.We do this by inspiring business, civil society, and government to design integrative solutionsthat create true wealth.

Our staff shows corporations, communities,individuals, and governments how to createmore wealth and employment, protect andenhance natural and human capital, increaseprofit and competitive advantage, and enjoymany other benefits — largely by doing whatthey do more efficiently.

Our work is independent, nonadversarial, and transideological, with a strong emphasis onmarket-based solutions.

Founded in 1982, Rocky Mountain Institute is a §501(c)(3)/509(a)(1) public charity. It has astaff of approximately 50. The Institute focuses itswork in several main areas — business practices,climate, community economic development,energy, real-estate development, security, trans-portation, and water — and carries on interna-tional outreach and technical-exchange programs.

Big and Green: Projects

P E K I N G U N I V E R S I T Y ,

C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 4

The ‘Big & Green’ Road Show

As part of RMI’s ongoing effort to

promote and cultivate green building

projects, RMI’s Bill Browning last fall

contributed to the creation of an exhibit

at the National Building Museum based

on Gissen’s book (Big & Green).

The show, which ran from January

through 22 June and will now go on

the road to seven major cities, depicts

selected big and green buildings around

the world. For more information,

please visit www.nbm.org/Exhibits/

current/Big_and_Green.html.

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until 2001. It has become the nationalstandard in almost all energy efficiencyprojects where contractors are paid for measured energy savings, and hashelped sharply cut the cost of energyefficiency financing. The protocol hasbeen key to over $5 billion of invest-ments in comprehensive energy andwater savings, and has been translatedinto ten languages (www.ipmvp.org).

“The energy efficiency industry was stuck because you couldn’t get financing or it was too expensive,” Greg says.IPMVP established best-practices stan-dards and made it clear that the savingswould reliably be there. This made peo-ple much more comfortable investing inefficiency and using the savings as col-lateral. “In other words,” he said, “theywere saying, ‘Yeah, we now believe theenergy savings, the water savings willbe there, and therefore we’re going tofund (and at lower rates) based on that,’rather than saying, ‘We don’t have con-fidence in energy efficiency investments,so we are going to charge high interestrates and use your company’s balancesheet as collateral.’”

Greg is now a principal in the Capital EGroup, a top Washington DC consult-|ing firm in distributed energy and the clean energy industry, where fellow-RMI-alum Joe Romm (having risen to Acting Assistant Secretary of Energy)is also a principal. Capital E advises

corporations (manyamong the Fortune 100), states, and agencieson deploying energy efficiency

technology.

Greg was lead author of the first rigor-ous analysis of the cost and financialbenefits of green buildings. The report,*for more than forty state agencies, showsthe financial benefits of green buildingsexceed costs by ten to one, and hasalready influenced the California Boardof Regents to decide that all futureCalifornia university system buildingswill be green. Greg is involved inresearch, writing, and consulting seekingthe best ways to deploy green buildingand energy technologies. Capital E alsoworks with startup companies, helpingfind ways to raise capital and ways toget products to market sooner. In addi-tion to his day jobs, Greg has served ondozens of advisory boards. He’s currentlychair of the Energy and Atmospheredivision of LEED™ (Leadership inEnergy & Environmental Design), the national green building rating systemdeveloped and administered by the U.S.Green Building Council (with help fromRMI). He’s also co-chair of the financecommittee of the American Councilfor Renewable Energy (ACRE), anadvocacy organization that aims to bringrenewable energy into the mainstreamof the American economy and lifestyle. But his current work isn’t quite as exoticas some jobs he held in the 1980s.

Greg’s advisory role with the HungarianParliament came just after the end ofcommunist rule. The government had setenergy budgets specifying levels of con-sumption that were supposed to be met.

“In other words, they had a culture ofenergy waste,” he said. “And I was able to help them think about putting in place new legislation to promote energy efficiency and understand that energy efficiency was consistent

with economic competitiveness.”

Greg has forged a career of distinguishedachievement in Europe and WashingtonDC, advancing energy efficiency, distributed generation, and clean energy.But he said he harbors a little envy forthose of us who work in places like Old Snowmass.

“RMI is inspirational, both intellectuallyand in terms of its physical beauty,” he said, “which reminds us why we dothis kind of stuff. [It reminds us] thatman, absent the environment, doesn’texist, and that we bear a responsibilityto maintain the environment for futuregenerations. We’re reminded of that in a place of beauty.”

—Jeremy Heiman

RMISolutionsF a l l / W i n t e r 2 0 0 3

31

What Are You Doing? Greg Kats

RMI logo organiccotton

T-shirts, EcoSpun®

(recycled P.E.T.)fleece vests, hoodedfullzip sweatshirts,and recycled-fiber

tote bags are on sale now!

To find out moreabout RMI stuff,

e-mail us:[email protected]

or call:970-927-3851

To find out about publications

for sale visit:www.rmi.org/store/

pid385.php

C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1 7

*The Costs and Financial Benefits of Green Buildings, a report to California’s Sustainable Building Task Force, Oct. 2003, www.cap-e.com/publications.

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RMISolutionsRMISolutionsn e w s l e t t e r

Rocky Mountain Institute/volume xix #3/Fall-Winter 2003Rocky Mountain Institute/volume xix #3/Fall-Winter 2003

RMISolutionsRMISolutions

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U.S. POSTAGE PAID

PERMIT #143

GRAND JCT, CO

Rocky Mountain Institute1739 Snowmass Creek Road

Snowmass, CO 81654-9199

C H A N G E S E R V I C E R E Q U E S T E D

Features

1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Big and Green

5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Enlightening Blackouts

7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ecology is Free

10 . . . . . . . . Envisioning a Sustainable Vancouver

12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Exploring Vancouver Island’s Energy Future

14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Greening the Grocer

In Every Issue

Life at RMI 16

Editor’s Notes 16

What Are You Doing? 17Greg Kats, Capital E

Staff Spotlight 18Red Cain, RMI Maintenance Department

Other Voices 19California’s New Academy of Sciences

Board Spotlight 22Brian Rosborough

Donor Spotlight 23Bud Konheim

RMI Supporters 24

RMI in the news