Saving energy went out of style when oil prices plunged during the second half of the 1980s and much of the 1990s. But Amory Lovins and the Rocky Mountain Institute—an entrepreneurial, nonprofit think tank he cofounded in 1982 to develop and implement advanced solutions for energy and resource efficiency—soldiered on.

Today’s surging energy costs are helping the always outspoken and sometimes controversial Lovins to find an increasingly interested audience when he exhorts business executives to look for savings in the nooks and crannies of offices and factories.

In an interview with McKinsey’s Matt Hirschland, Jeremy Oppenheim, and Allen Webb, Lovins argues that businesses acting quickly to make their operations more efficient will gain a significant competitive advantage. He also discusses why executives often overlook seemingly simple energy- and money-saving solutions, describes the relationship between energy and carbon efficiency, and suggests that companies and their markets will outpace policy makers in the race for solutions.