Casten was the founding president and CEO of Trigen Energy Corporation (a
New York Stock Exchange corporation) and its predecessors from 1977 through 2000. He served until 2006 as founding chair and CEO of Primary Energy and its subsidiary Primary Energy Recycling Corp. In 2006, he founded and was chairman of
Recycled Energy Development (RED), based in Westmont, Illinois. In 2016, RED was sold to Ironclad Energy Partners. These companies focused on
energy recycling, a process that turns waste energy (usually heat) into clean power and steam. Casten has said his goal is to combat global warming in a profitable way, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy costs at the same time. Casten has served as president of the International District Energy Association and co-founder and chairman of the
World Alliance for Decentralized Energy, which are trade associations that promote
combined heat and power,
district heating, and other forms of
distributed generation. Casten also serves on numerous boards for energy-related institutions, has testified before the energy committees of the
U.S. Congress, and served on the informal policy advisory team of then-presidential candidate
Barack Obama in 2008. Casten is the author of
Turning Off the Heat: Why America Must Double Energy Efficiency to Save Money and Reduce Global Warming. He has also published articles in outlets including
American Scientist, the
Detroit Free Press, Electricity Journal, and the
Albuquerque Journal, as well as a chapter in
Energy and American Society: Thirteen Myths. His work on
energy recycling received profiles in
Forbes,
Smithsonian,
Nature,
US News,
The Atlantic, Orian, and
National Public Radio. ==Personal life==