L. Hunter Lovins

L. Hunter Lovins is pissed.

Decked out in her trademark cowgirl threads, Lovins is ranting to her class at the Presidio School of Management in San Francisco about the failure of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Bali to produce consensus on a blueprint for global climate action once the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012, and how much she hates the argument from developing countries that they shouldn’t have to slow industrialization to make up for the global warming mess created by developed nations.

Describing an encounter with a Pakistani diplomat who voiced such an argument, she says, “I told him, ‘I know it’s not fair! But if you don’t address these issues, it’s your country that’s going to bear the brunt. You’re going to ruin water and food crops in your own country and miss out on economic opportunities, too. But if you want to ruin Pakistan, go ahead! I don’t care!’”

It’s the sort of straight shootin’ Lovins is known for and that her students love. In combination with stories about meetings with the Prime Minister of England, visits with Prince Charles and regular chats with Al Gore, Lovins’ schtick certainly makes class more interesting than the average university lecture.

After class, Sustainable Industries’ Amy Westervelt grabbed a cup of chili with the coauthor of “Natural Capitalism,” co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), and president and CEO of consulting firm Natural Capitalism Inc. and its nonprofit counterpart, Natural Capitalism Solutions, to dig beneath Lovins’ cowgirl image and find out what she has been up to since leaving RMI in 2002.

SI: Your name is most often associated with the book “Natural Capitalism” and your work at the Rocky Mountain Institute. Where have you seen that work go in the last five years?