2004 Forum Report: Financing Technologies for the Environment
Keynote: Funding Models for Financing Environmental Technologies
Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute
Confessions of a Serial Nonprofit Techno Entrepreneur
Keynote Address by Amory Lovins
Amory Lovins, CEO of Rocky Mountain Institute explained how his organization has used a wide variety of financing strategies in their work with environmental technologies.
RMI is itself a social enterprise with a $6 million annual budget and a staff of about 50 people that derives 70% of its revenue from programmatic enterprises. It is organized into "pods" that include "new intellectual capital", "applied research", "education and outreach", "strategic influence", and "demonstration building/land partnership".
Lovins made the case that in a tripolar world, business holds the biggest key; he has therefore focused his efforts on working with corporations. He has found that there are opportunities to sell his research three times: as the original research, as a publication of the research, and as a republication for particular constituencies. RMI follows a Natural Capitalism strategy that productively employs people and nature as well as money and goods to create value.
RMI has employed a variety of funding models including:
- consultancy as applied research
- grants
- publications
- private finance
- credits/trading
- internally incubated enterprise
- for profit spin-offs
- industrial research consortia
- program related investments
