Thomas R. Casten

Emeritus Board Member

Retired Chairman, Recycled Energy Development, LLC

Thomas Casten, founder and retired chair of Recycled Energy Development, LLC, spent 40 years developing decentralized energy recycling projects that profitably reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Tom founded several companies to advance more efficient production of useful energy including Cummins Cogeneration Company, Trigen Energy Corporation (NYSE, 1994-2001), Primary Energy Recycling Company (Toronto Stock Exchange 2005) and Recycled Energy Development.  Between 1977 and 2016 these firms deployed roughly $2.0 billion in CHP projects with twice the efficiency of conventional separate generation and thus avoid 6.5 million tons of CO2 per year, roughly what human actions on earth emit every 90 minutes.

Tom received the Platt’s Global Energy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.  He served as President of the International District Energy Association, received the Norman R. Taylor Award for distinguished achievement, was named a “CHP Champion” by the US Combined Heat and Power Association. He was the founding Chairman of the World Alliance for Distributed Energy (WADE) and is the first member of their Hall of Fame. Board service has included the Carnegie Melon Electric Industry Center, the American Council on Renewable Energy, the Ontario Alliance for Clean Technology, the Climate Institute, and Chicago Council on Global Affairs Energy Task Force. Tom testified on numerous occasions before U.S. Senate and House Energy committees, and has advised Canadian, Indian, Chinese and Brazilian government officials on power industry governance. He is the author of Turning off the Heat, chapters in ‘Energy and American Society, Thirteen Myths’ and ‘Sudden and Disruptive Climate Change’, plus numerous articles on reducing carbon intensity.