Edward Castano

I'm a strong believer in the power of persuasive technology to help people shape public policy.  I'm specifically focused on environmental sustainability.  

Environmental sustainability is an issue that underlies many other important social issues.  However, currently most people approach the problem in one of two ways:

1)  Technology will solve our problems.  We can invent our way out of this.
2)  We need to convince people to be more green.

I believe that both of these approaches try to deal with the symptoms instead of the root cause of our sustainability issues.   What we really need to do is change public policy to align people's short term economic well-being with their long-term environmental & economic prosperity.  This requires using technology, not just to invent new ways to be more sustainable, but also to empower people to change the law.  

Consider that 99.9% of the $2.5 trillion dollars in US Federal receipts come from taxing 'goods' (work, innovation, wealth, etc.) instead of 'bads' (pollution, inefficiency, and waste).   I'd imagine that if it were the other way around, we would have a more sustainable economy without the need for an incremental tax.  

Intrigued?   In addition to the Social M Challenge, I'm launching an organization that will use persuasive technology (mass personalization) to help environmental groups improve their member's engagement on environmental policy.  We even have a working prototype.  Please follow me on BliztBazaar if you'd like to be kept posted.  

I have a team of 4 fabulous colleagues working on this, but can always use more help.   Send me a message if you think you can help.   I'm currently looking for help in the following areas:  fund raising and development, graphic design, web design, programming, market research, intellectual property protection, and anyone with lots of energy for environmental policy.