SAN DIEGO (SEPTEMBER 21, 2026) – Center for Sustainability (CSE) announced today that clean energy entrepreneur Chris Castro, executive vice president at Climate First Bank and a former U.S. Department of Energy senior executive, will serve as the CSE President’s Special Advisor for EV Infrastructure.
As special advisor, Castro will apply his expertise in planning, designing and financing decarbonization solutions in the transportation sector to advise CSE on efforts to rapidly deploy electric vehicle (EV) charging at the state and local levels.
A national nonprofit, CSE administers EV and EV charging incentive programs valued at over $3 billion for states and utilities across the U.S., including the $500 million California Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Project (CALeVIP).
CSE developed its proprietary Caret® platform and Caret suite of software-enabled services that automate the process of strategically deploying EV infrastructure. Caret creates actionable planning insights to help businesses and government agencies ensure chargers are well-positioned for maximum utilization while achieving equity and other goals.
“Chris Castro’s deep business and policy experience in carbon mitigation strategies will help CSE scale initiatives to drive the EV charger deployment needed to decarbonize transportation,” said CSE President Lawrence Goldenhersh. “He has earned the trust of government decision-makers at every level, and CSE is honored he is joining us in moving clean mobility solutions forward.”
“Public and private sector efforts have resulted in hundreds of thousands of charging ports installed across the country, but there is much work to be done to achieve technical parity with the growing demand of EVs,” Castro said. “State, regional, and local governments, along with metropolitan planning and transportation organizations, can benefit from CSE’s Caret planning approach, which dramatically reduces development time by instantly visualizing the effects of deployment options by analyzing over 80 factors to determine the most optimal locations and technical specs. I didn’t see any software solution with Caret’s capabilities during my tenure at DOE, and it is exactly the type of technology I was desperate to have as a city planner.”
After helping found Climate First Bank in 2020, Castro left in 2022 to serve as the first chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, where he managed a $16 billion portfolio of grants and technical assistance programs supporting the transition to clean energy.
Previously, Castro served as the City of Orlando’s director of sustainability and resilience and as a senior advisor to Mayor Buddy Dyer. Through the Green Works Orlando initiative, he developed policies and programs to advance the city’s sustainability and climate goals. Castro also co-founded IDEAS For Us, a UN-accredited nonprofit advancing community-led sustainability projects, and Fleet Farming, an urban farming social enterprise. He also started Citizen Energy, a clean energy consulting firm focused on commercial and multifamily buildings.
About the Center for Sustainable Energy
Center for Sustainable Energy® (CSE) is a national nonprofit that accelerates adoption of clean transportation and distributed energy through effective and equitable program design and administration. Governments, utilities and the private sector trust CSE for its data-driven and software-enabled approach, deep domain expertise and customer-focused team. CSE’s fee-for-service business model frees it from the influence of shareholders, members and donors, and ensures its independence.
