Western societies have been trying to clean up their act for decades. However, that clean-up has had very dirty consequences, but there is hope. Listen to Hilde Opoku's story of how Ghana and Norway are forging ahead as leaders in the fight for a better environment for all. Hilde Opoku, Deputy Mayor and Leader of the Green Party in Trondheim. Former spokesperson for the Green Party in Norway from 2014 to 2016, Hilde is a political scientist with a specialization in industrial ecology. She previously worked at the Department of Industrial Ecology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) before entering politics in 2003 when she was elected to the city council of Trondheim.

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.