Tom Casten receives lifetime achievement award

Last night, Tom Casten received the prestigious Platts Lifetime Achievement Award for his work creating ultra-efficient energy systems in the U.S.

“As the founder and president of several energy companies, Casten has succeeded since 1975 in simultaneously slashing power costs and greenhouse gas emissions, and as an author and the founder of numerous advocacy groups, he has precipitated policy changes that have advanced industrial energy recycling and efficiency,” Platts noted in announcing the Lifetime Achievement Award, bestowed at the 2009 Platts Global Energy Awards.

Platts, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, is the leading source for global energy and commodities information.

As an interesting aside as we look to the start of the U.N. Climate Change conference in Copenhagen, many of the systems Casten developed are similar to what Denmark has used to revolutionize their energy system and slash their greenhouse emissions over the past 30 years.

Sadly, while Denmark produces more than 50 percent of its power from energy recycling and waste heat recovery projects, the U.S. generates only 8 percent from these super-efficient processes.