Letter from our CEO
As I reflect on the past year, I am filled with pride about what we’ve achieved together and with optimism about our growing impact and influence. Thanks to your support, we have been more effective than ever in accelerating the global energy transition toward efficiency and renewables. I firmly believe that Rocky Mountain Institute is an exceptional nonprofit in the energy space with a bright past and boundless future.
April 2017 marked our 35th anniversary — an opportunity to look back over the past three-and-a- half decades of groundbreaking energy work. And the only conclusion possible is that we have been truly changing the world, then and now. From our early efforts laying the groundwork for radically energy-efficient buildings and pioneering technologies like the electric car, to our up-to-the-minute work with blockchain technology and minigrids in sub-Saharan Africa, RMI is doing more to arrest climate change than any organization of its size.
In the past year, RMI continued to grow, reaching $36.8 million in revenue and 185 employees. Our future growth will be guided by a new five-
year plan, endorsed by our board of trustees.
This strategy takes our “think, do, and scale” approach to more places with more partners so that our work is a match for the global scope of the climate crisis. To do that, we are evolving into an institute that is larger and more engaged with an expanding constellation of businesses, markets, nations, collaborators, and supporters.
As we planned our future, we also honored our past with a joyful gathering of longtime RMI friends, partners, and supporters at our RMI35 anniversary event. The celebration was made possible by many of our most important patrons and marked by an armchair conversation with Tom Friedman of the New York Times and our own Amory Lovins.
On the same day, we hosted the Energy Innovation Summit, which brought together a “dream team” of several dozen energy experts and thought leaders for a robust conversation about the global energy transition. President Bill Clinton paid a surprise visit, bringing his own brilliant insight. Those who attended the summit are using what we created together to find innovative solutions, move capital where it’s needed, and drive lasting change.
Throughout this annual report, you will read about the many important successes our programs have achieved in the past year in their efforts to accelerate the energy transformation. We helped bring India’s government and industry leadership together to chart a course to meet their breathtaking commitment to 100 percent vehicle electrification by 2030, and are currently supporting that effort. We provided research that resulted in new U.S. fuel-efficiency standards for trucks that are expected to cut over 1 billion tons of CO2 emissions. Our new WattTime subsidiary enables individual devices to time energy use to the real-time emissions impacts at their exact locations. And we helped launch an energy blockchain consortium to facilitate millions of secure energy transactions per minute to occur on our electric grids, finally bringing our solar panels’ and car batteries’ value to energy markets.
By now you may be wondering how I — and all of us at RMI — can remain so hopeful about tomorrow given the lack of leadership at the federal level on the energy transition. The answer: we know there’s an insurmountable business case for a clean and efficient energy system. While strong federal government leadership would result in a faster energy transformation — and therefore a brighter future for all life on earth — it’s hard to see how the U.S. could return to burning coal or wasting energy; it’s simply not economical.
To help drive the momentum of decarbonization, our team at RMI is doubling down, defining new ways to scale our impact, and ensuring that our programs are robust in the new political context.
One accomplishment I’m particularly proud of: RMI was part of bringing together We Are Still In, an unprecedented coalition of over 2,300 U.S. states, cities, and businesses dedicated to continuing strong U.S. climate leadership in the context of the Paris Agreement. We also supported Michael Bloomberg and Governor Jerry Brown in showcasing ongoing U.S. climate leadership by nonfederal actors through their America’s Pledge initiative.
As we pause to celebrate RMI’s bright past, it is efforts like these — growing in reach, influence, and scale — that give me confidence that we have a boundless future. The only reason we are able to do what we do is that you, our supporters, have placed an immense amount of trust in us. We will continue to do our best to earn this trust.
I hope you will join me in supporting the work that all the staff at RMI, and all of our partners and supporters around the world, do every day to address the planetary crises we face. Together, we can transform global energy use to create a clean, prosperous, and secure
low-carbon future.
Sincerely,
