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A guide by RMI providing six recommendations for homeowners to improve health, save money, and reduce carbon emissions during COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders, focusing on energy efficiency and electrification.

A letter from Ting Li, managing director of RMI's Beijing office, reflecting on the office's experience during the initial coronavirus outbreak in China and offering a message of solidarity and optimism to global colleagues.

This policy brief by RMI discusses the challenges financial institutions face when aligning investment portfolios with the Paris Agreement's decarbonization goals, proposing a sector-by-sector approach to overcome these barriers.

This briefing by RMI argues that the electric vehicle (EV) sector represents a massive untapped opportunity to drive global demand for renewable energy. It proposes that EV charge point operators (CPOs), mobility service providers (eMSPs), and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) should implement 100% renewable energy charging solutions, starting with large fleets, to stimulate new renewable energy capacity and reduce operational costs compared to internal combustion engine vehicles.

This briefing by RMI argues for the immediate implementation of Puerto Rico's energy transformation, emphasizing the urgent need for solar energy, battery storage, and energy efficiency to address grid instability following hurricanes and earthquakes.

This policy brief argues that New York can meet its energy needs in New York City and Long Island through customer-focused solutions—energy efficiency, electrification, and demand response—rather than constructing the proposed $1 billion Northeast Supply Enhancement Project (NESE) gas pipeline. The author contends that the pipeline is incompatible with the state's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) and that non-infrastructure alternatives are more cost-effective and beneficial for public health.

This report summarizes a November 2019 workshop convened by RMI and India's Department of Heavy Industry (DHI) to support the deployment of 5,595 e-buses under the FAME Scheme, Phase II. It highlights the potential for India to become the world's second-largest e-bus market by 2030 and details the projected environmental and economic benefits of the sanctioned e-bus rollout, including 1.2 million tons of avoided CO2 emissions and $500 million in oil import savings.

This briefing introduces the 'hours of safety' framework to quantify the resilience of building envelopes during power outages caused by severe winter storms, comparing various home construction standards from the 1950s to Passive House standards.

This insight brief introduces 'hours of safety' as a metric to quantify how long a building envelope can maintain safe indoor temperatures during power outages in extreme cold. Using simulations of five building types in Duluth, Minnesota, the research demonstrates that high-performance envelopes, such as those meeting Passive House standards, significantly extend the time residents can safely shelter in place compared to older or code-compliant homes.

This report provides engineering and design best practices to improve the resilience of rooftop solar PV systems against hurricane-force winds, primarily in the Caribbean. Based on an analysis of failures from 2017-2019, it identifies top-down clip failure and joint loosening as primary root causes of system collapse. Key recommendations include using vibration-resistant fasteners, avoiding ballasted-only systems in favor of mechanical attachments, and ensuring modules are not installed over roof edges or in high-pressure 'Zone 3' areas. Implementing these measures is estimated to increase EPC costs by roughly 5%.

This report by RMI argues that the global climate should be viewed as a foundational infrastructure asset. It compares the high costs of climate inaction—categorized as direct physical losses, indirect economic growth reductions, and market uncertainty—against the relatively lower costs of preventive investments in energy efficiency, grid modernization, and carbon pricing.

This report by RMI outlines the financial opportunities and barriers associated with improving energy performance in Class B and C office buildings through energy efficiency and green leasing.

RMI is testing a "community-led" approach to rural minigrids in sub-Saharan Africa through its "Sharing the Power" project. Unlike top-down models, which RMI argues can lead to stranded assets and system failure, community-led projects are designed in partnership with local leadership and structures. RMI hypothesizes that this approach can increase electricity demand for productive use and reduce system costs and prices by 60% compared to 2018 levels. The program is currently evaluating implementation in Nigeria and Ethiopia.

This report outlines the potential for 'undergrid' minigrids in Nigeria, detailing the economic benefits for distribution companies, operators, and communities, and proposing four collaborative business models to implement these projects.

The document provides a practical guide and analytic method for comparing the climate-effectiveness of different investments intended to displace coal-fired electricity, emphasizing that both emissions and costs must be combined to make sound climate protection choices.

This briefing by RMI argues that shifting the focus from individual net-zero energy buildings to net-zero energy districts allows for greater cost-effectiveness, better grid integration, and optimized clean mobility through urban-scale planning.

This policy brief by RMI argues that the United States can reduce carbon emissions and lower consumer costs by replacing proposed new natural gas power plants with 'clean energy portfolios' consisting of zero-emissions technologies.

This report examines the environmental impact of global steelmaking and evaluates hydrogen-based direct reduction as a low-carbon alternative for primary steel production.

This briefing discusses the mandate given to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to investigate the transition to a performance-based regulation (PBR) model to align utility operations with state clean energy and decarbonization goals.

This case study describes the collaboration between Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and the Lodha Group to apply a net-zero energy (NZE) district design framework to Palava City, a large-scale greenfield development near Mumbai, India. The project aims to demonstrate how integrated design across energy, mobility, and water systems can create sustainable, high-density urban environments in emerging markets.