4 questions for Michael Potts, Rocky Mountain Institute

Gargi Chakrabarty, Rocky Mountain News

Friday, March 9, 2007

Michael Potts on Thursday was appointed CEO of think tank Rocky Mountain Institute. A high-tech industry veteran, Potts succeeds Amory Lovins, 59, who becomes the institute's chairman and chief scientist. Both changes take effect immediately, as Chairman John Fox changes his role to lead trustee. A Denver resident, the 50-year-old Potts will split his time between the institute's office in Boulder and headquarters in Old Snowmass.

The institute says its technical experts have redesigned $30 billion worth of facilities in 29 sectors for dramatic energy and resource efficiency. Potts told the Rocky Mountain News he "got so excited about what the institute was doing" that he dropped off other stuff he was doing to join it.

1 What are some of the things the institute is doing?

The institute uses research and innovation to help organizations choose a path that's good for them and also the world. And that involves making use of natural resources more radically. We worked closely with Wal-Mart to help change the store structures to use more daylight and make those energy-efficient. We also worked with Wal-Mart's transportation providers to make them more fuel-efficient.

We worked with Texas Instruments to devise a new chip plant that saved a lot of energy and also reduced construction cost. That allowed the company to build the plant in the United States rather than move it overseas. We are working with the Pentagon to improve the efficiency of their buildings; we are redesigning their whole infrastructure to use dramatically less energy.

2 What is Mr. Lovins' new role in the institute?

He is relieved of day-to-day management duties. He is in great demand as a speaker and senior adviser to government and large corporations. That way, he can go out there and have more influence, and also bring back new information to us.

3 What would you bring to the institute?

My background is in the for-profit sector in high technology . . . it's about driving high growth in high-technology companies. I am pretty experienced in growing an organization, and right now the demand for Rocky Mountain Institute's services is so strong they need a different approach to management - an approach that's more process-oriented, more predictable and the ability to scale.

We have 52 employees now, and we may scale that. I am here to work with Amory and staff and come up with a compelling strategy about where we want to be in five years.

4 And where would that be?

I think the Rocky Mountain Institute has the reputation and the capability to become an enduring institution. We don't know if we will scale up to a lot more employees or whether it would be more strategic to be global, have a stronger presence in India and China. What we do know is that our approach to radical improvements in energy efficiency is needed all over.

chakrabartyg@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2976