Hunter Lovins
Encyclopedia
L. Hunter Lovins is an author and a promoter of sustainable development
for over 30 years, is president of Natural Capitalism Solutions, a 501(c)3 non-profit in Longmont, Colorado
and the Chief Insurgent of the Madrone Project. She teaches sustainable business management at Bainbridge Graduate Institute
in Seattle, Washington, and Denver University and was a founding professor at Presidio Graduate School
's MBA
in Sustainable Management program (2002-2010). She also has taught at various universities, consulted for many citizens’ groups, governments and corporations. She co-founded with her then-husband Amory Lovins
the Rocky Mountain Institute
(RMI) which she led for 20 years. In demand as a speaker and consultant, she has addressed the World Economic Forum
, the U.S. Congress, the World Summit on Sustainable Development
, and hundreds of major conferences. Named a "green business icon" by Newsweek
, a millennium "Hero of the Planet" by Time Magazine
, she has also received the Right Livelihood Award
, the Leadership in Business Award and dozens of other honors.
and political science
from Pitzer College
, in Claremont, California
and her J.D.
from Loyola Law School
in Los Angeles
. In 1979 she married Amory Lovins
; they separated in 1989 and divorced in 1999.
A practicing attorney (member of the State Bar of California
), Lovins helped establish, and was for six years Assistant Director of the California Conservation Project (Tree People), an urban forestry and environmental education group. She served as policy adviser for Friends of the Earth
under David Brower. Named Henry R. Luce
visiting professor at Dartmouth College
, Lovins has taught at several universities, and is currently professor of Sustainable Management at Bainbridge Graduate Institute
which offers an accredited MBA in sustainable management. In 1982 she co-founded the Rocky Mountain Institute, a 50-person research center with a $7 million annual budget, half of it earned through programmatic enterprise. She was RMI's CEO for strategy until 2002.
, George Soros and others. In 2003, she created Natural Capitalism Inc. and the non-profit Natural Capitalism Solutions to implement the ideas of sustainable development on a global scale.
She advises companies and non-profits, including Engineers Without Borders, Portfolio 21, GreenMountain.com and The Natural Edge Project. She was a founding director of RMI’s for-profit spin-off, E SOURCE, until its 1999 sale for $18 million to the Financial Times.
s, the 1999 Lindbergh Award for Environment and Technology, and several honorary doctorates. In 2000, she was named a Hero of the Planet by Time Magazine, and received the Loyola Law School
Award for Outstanding Community Service. In 2001, she received the Leadership in Business Award and shared the Shingo Prize
for Manufacturing Research. In 2005 she received the Distinguished Alumni Award of Pitzer College
.
), Energy Unbound: A Fable for America's Future (1986), The First Nuclear World War (1984), Brittle Power: Energy Strategy for National Security (1983), Solving the CO2 Problem (1981).
in San Francisco. Lovins has also delivered lectures in courses at leading universities and colleges in the United States and abroad.
Sustainable development
Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...
for over 30 years, is president of Natural Capitalism Solutions, a 501(c)3 non-profit in Longmont, Colorado
Longmont, Colorado
Longmont is a Home Rule Municipality in Boulder and Weld counties in the U.S. state of Colorado. Longmont is located in Northern Colorado. Longmont is the 13th most populous city in the State of Colorado. The word "Longmont" comes from Longs Peak, a prominent mountain named for explorer Stephen H....
and the Chief Insurgent of the Madrone Project. She teaches sustainable business management at Bainbridge Graduate Institute
Bainbridge Graduate Institute
The Bainbridge Graduate Institute is based in Bainbridge Island, Washington and Seattle, Washington. BGI offers an MBA in Sustainable Business, an MBA in Sustainable Systems and a Certificate in Sustainable Business. BGI's unique and pioneering curriculum infuses social- and...
in Seattle, Washington, and Denver University and was a founding professor at Presidio Graduate School
Presidio School of Management
Presidio Graduate School is a higher-education institution based in San Francisco, California, offering graduate level programs in sustainable management, including those for MBA, MPA, and Executive Education...
's MBA
Master of Business Administration
The Master of Business Administration is a :master's degree in business administration, which attracts people from a wide range of academic disciplines. The MBA designation originated in the United States, emerging from the late 19th century as the country industrialized and companies sought out...
in Sustainable Management program (2002-2010). She also has taught at various universities, consulted for many citizens’ groups, governments and corporations. She co-founded with her then-husband Amory Lovins
Amory Lovins
Amory Bloch Lovins is an American environmental scientist and writer, Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has worked in the field of energy policy and related areas for four decades...
the Rocky Mountain Institute
Rocky Mountain Institute
Rocky Mountain Institute is an organization in the United States dedicated to research, publication, consulting, and lecturing in the general field of sustainability, with a special focus on profitable innovations for energy and resource efficiency. RMI was established in 1982 and has grown into a...
(RMI) which she led for 20 years. In demand as a speaker and consultant, she has addressed the World Economic Forum
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....
, the U.S. Congress, the World Summit on Sustainable Development
Earth Summit 2002
The World Summit on Sustainable Development, WSSD or Earth Summit 2002 took place in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 26 August to 4 September 2002. It was convened to discuss sustainable development by the United Nations. WSSD gathered a number of leaders from business and non-governmental...
, and hundreds of major conferences. Named a "green business icon" by Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
, a millennium "Hero of the Planet" by Time Magazine
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, she has also received the Right Livelihood Award
Right Livelihood Award
The Right Livelihood Award, also referred to as the "Alternative Nobel Prize", is a prestigious international award to honour those "working on practical and exemplary solutions to the most urgent challenges facing the world today". The prize was established in 1980 by Jakob von Uexkull, and is...
, the Leadership in Business Award and dozens of other honors.
Background
Lovins received her undergraduate degree in sociologySociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
and political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
from Pitzer College
Pitzer College
Pitzer College is a private residential liberal arts college located in Claremont, California, a college town approximately east of downtown Los Angeles. Pitzer College is one of the Claremont Colleges....
, in Claremont, California
Claremont, California
Claremont is a small affluent college town in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States, about east of downtown Los Angeles at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. The population as of the 2010 census is 34,926. Claremont is known for its seven higher-education institutions, its...
and her J.D.
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
from Loyola Law School
Loyola Law School
Loyola Law School is the law school of Loyola Marymount University, a private Catholic university in the Jesuit and Marymount traditions, in Los Angeles, California. Loyola was established in 1920. Like Loyola University Chicago School of Law and Loyola University New Orleans College of Law , it...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. In 1979 she married Amory Lovins
Amory Lovins
Amory Bloch Lovins is an American environmental scientist and writer, Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has worked in the field of energy policy and related areas for four decades...
; they separated in 1989 and divorced in 1999.
A practicing attorney (member of the State Bar of California
State Bar of California
The State Bar of California is California's official bar association. It is responsible for managing the admission of lawyers to the practice of law, investigating complaints of professional misconduct, and prescribing appropriate discipline...
), Lovins helped establish, and was for six years Assistant Director of the California Conservation Project (Tree People), an urban forestry and environmental education group. She served as policy adviser for Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth International is an international network of environmental organizations in 76 countries.FOEI is assisted by a small secretariat which provides support for the network and its agreed major campaigns...
under David Brower. Named Henry R. Luce
Henry Luce
Henry Robinson Luce was an influential American publisher. He launched and closely supervised a stable of magazines that transformed journalism and the reading habits of upscale Americans...
visiting professor at Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
, Lovins has taught at several universities, and is currently professor of Sustainable Management at Bainbridge Graduate Institute
Bainbridge Graduate Institute
The Bainbridge Graduate Institute is based in Bainbridge Island, Washington and Seattle, Washington. BGI offers an MBA in Sustainable Business, an MBA in Sustainable Systems and a Certificate in Sustainable Business. BGI's unique and pioneering curriculum infuses social- and...
which offers an accredited MBA in sustainable management. In 1982 she co-founded the Rocky Mountain Institute, a 50-person research center with a $7 million annual budget, half of it earned through programmatic enterprise. She was RMI's CEO for strategy until 2002.
Public service
Lovins was one of four people from North America to serve as a delegate to the UN's prep conference for Europe and North America for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, and lead a delegation to the World Summit. She was a commissioner in the State of the World Forum’s Commission on Globalization, co-chaired by Mikhail Gorbachev, Jane GoodallJane Goodall
Dame Jane Morris Goodall, DBE , is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National...
, George Soros and others. In 2003, she created Natural Capitalism Inc. and the non-profit Natural Capitalism Solutions to implement the ideas of sustainable development on a global scale.
She advises companies and non-profits, including Engineers Without Borders, Portfolio 21, GreenMountain.com and The Natural Edge Project. She was a founding director of RMI’s for-profit spin-off, E SOURCE, until its 1999 sale for $18 million to the Financial Times.
Presentations
Lovins has presented to an array of audiences around the world, including:- U.S. Congress
- World Summit on Sustainable Development
- World Economic Forum
- Global Economic Forum
- Daughters of the American Revolution Continental Congress
- World’s Fair Energy Symposia
- State of the World Forum
- St. John the Divine Cathedral Epiphany Service
- Industrial Designers Society’s WorlDesign
- United Nations Development Program
- Institution of Engineers Australia
- United Nations Industrial Development Organizations Annual General Conference
- Hundreds of conferences & college symposia
- Queensland EPA Sustainable Industries Division
- New Zealand Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment
- Western Australia Environmental Policy Unit
- IPENZ National Convention / Newnham Lecture Australian Conservation Foundation
- European Climate Exchange
- Green Festivals
Television and Film appearances
- NOVA "Poison in the Rockies"
- Planet ForwardPlanet ForwardPlanet Forward is a and PBS television special that launched in March 2009 and had a broadcast premiere April 15, 2009. Created and hosted by Frank Sesno, the project focuses on creating an online public forum where people from across the globe can discuss topics involving energy solutions and the...
- 60 Minutes (USA)
- Good Morning America
- Bill Moyers' NOW
- Pat Robertson’s "700 Club"
- Australian Broadcasting Company
- The Merv Griffin Show
- Award-winning film "Lovins On the Soft Path"
- Chicago Manufacturing Center online training course for the Sustainability Helix
Awards
Lovins shared a 1982 Mitchell Prize for an essay on reallocating utility capital, a 1983 Right Livelihood Award (often called the "alternative Nobel Prize"), a 1993 Nissan Award for an article on HypercarHypercar
The Hypercar is a design concept car developed by energy analyst Amory Lovins at the Rocky Mountain Institute. This vehicle would have ultra-light construction with an aerodynamic body using advanced composite materials, low-drag design, and hybrid drive...
s, the 1999 Lindbergh Award for Environment and Technology, and several honorary doctorates. In 2000, she was named a Hero of the Planet by Time Magazine, and received the Loyola Law School
Loyola Law School
Loyola Law School is the law school of Loyola Marymount University, a private Catholic university in the Jesuit and Marymount traditions, in Los Angeles, California. Loyola was established in 1920. Like Loyola University Chicago School of Law and Loyola University New Orleans College of Law , it...
Award for Outstanding Community Service. In 2001, she received the Leadership in Business Award and shared the Shingo Prize
Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing
is a not-for-profit organization housed at Utah State University and named after Japanese industrial engineer Shigeo Shingo. Dr. Shingo distinguished himself as one of the world’s thought leaders in concepts, management systems and improvement techniques that have become known as the Toyota...
for Manufacturing Research. In 2005 she received the Distinguished Alumni Award of Pitzer College
Pitzer College
Pitzer College is a private residential liberal arts college located in Claremont, California, a college town approximately east of downtown Los Angeles. Pitzer College is one of the Claremont Colleges....
.
Publications
Lovins has co-authored nine books including Climate Capitalism: Capitalism in the Age of Climate Change (2011), Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (1999), and The Natural Advantage of Nations (2006), Green Development (1998), Factor 4: Doubling Wealth - Halving Resource Use and Least Cost Energy (1997, together with Ernst Ulrich von WeizsäckerErnst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker is a German scientist and politician.He is son of the physicist Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker and nephew of the former German President Richard von Weizsäcker....
), Energy Unbound: A Fable for America's Future (1986), The First Nuclear World War (1984), Brittle Power: Energy Strategy for National Security (1983), Solving the CO2 Problem (1981).
- She has dozens of professional papers published in journals including the Harvard Business ReviewHarvard Business ReviewHarvard Business Review is a general management magazine published since 1922 by Harvard Business School Publishing, owned by the Harvard Business School. A monthly research-based magazine written for business practitioners, it claims a high ranking business readership among academics, executives,...
, Foreign AffairsForeign AffairsForeign Affairs is an American magazine and website on international relations and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually...
, the American Association for the Advancement of ScienceAmerican Association for the Advancement of ScienceThe American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
, the Journal of the American Bar Association, Natural Resources Journal and Journal of the U.S. Green Building Council - Recent articles have appeared in World Link, World Business Academy Review, The Guardian, American Prospect, Los Angeles Times, Yes! Magazine (see photo), and In-Business Magazine
- Lovins sits on the Editorial Board of Sustainability: The Journal of Record, (publisher Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.) where she has contributed articles and editorials
Higher education
The business education programs developed by Lovins and her colleagues aim to demonstrate how socially and environmentally responsible business decisions benefit performance in corporate, government, and non-profit organizations. These programs draw upon expertise in international business, education, engineering, architecture, law, economics, and natural resources.Lectures & Teaching
In August 2003, Lovins and her colleague, Walter Link, delivered the first class of the Presidio School of ManagementPresidio School of Management
Presidio Graduate School is a higher-education institution based in San Francisco, California, offering graduate level programs in sustainable management, including those for MBA, MPA, and Executive Education...
in San Francisco. Lovins has also delivered lectures in courses at leading universities and colleges in the United States and abroad.
Books
- Climate CapitalismClimate CapitalismClimate Capitalism: Capitalism in the Age of Climate Change is a 2011 book by L. Hunter Lovins and Boyd Cohen. It presents positive stories and examples of how profit-seeking companies are helping to save the planet...
: Capitalism in the Age of Climate Change with co-author Boyd Cohen (2011) ISBN 978-0809034734
External links
- Natural Capitalism Solutions, Hunter Lovins' company
- L. Hunter Lovins - MIPtalk.com Interview