Birgitte Holter, head of sales and marketing in Hydro’s European extruded products operations, is chair of the United Nations Environment Program's Sustainable Buildings and Climate change Initiative.

On Thursday, September 24, she addressed the Nordic Building Exhibition (“Bygg Reis Deg”) near Oslo. Her topic: “The Global Challenge – CO2 Emission: The global emission & energy challenge and the construction industries’ role.”

"Invisible" audience

“Dear ladies and gentlemen,” she said, addressing the gathering, “or should I rather say, dear invisible ladies and invisible gentlemen.”

“Invisible,” because she wasn’t at the conference itself. She prepared her materials and a voice-over speech to save on the carbon emissions that she would have generated traveling from her office in Lausanne, Switzerland, to the conference in Lillestrøm, east of Oslo.

“This presentation is proof that it is possible to make a low-CO2 presentation,” she said.

• Click on the link Audio slide show (PowerPoint): “The Global Challenge – CO2 Emission," by Birgitte Holter in the right-hand column to launch the PowerPoint audio slide show (note that the file is approximately 20 MB)