Sustainable development has been the red line in Kitty van der Heijdens'carreer. After working for the UN, she is now director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ambassador for sustainable development. She will represent the Netherlands in the upcoming Rio plus 20 earth Summit in June 2012. An international conference organised by the UN 20 years after the first UN conference on sustainable development in Rio. At TEDxHaarlem Kitty van der Heijden will take us on a journey through international sustainable development conferences.

You might not expect the chief operating officer of a major global corporation to look too far beyond either the balance sheet or the bottom line. But Harish Manwani, COO of Unilever, makes a passionate argument that doing so to include value, purpose and sustainability in top-level decision-making is not just savvy, it's the only way to run a 21st century business responsibly. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more.