Serageldin joined Rita Colwell, Bill Clark, Claire Fraser-Liggett and other distinguished speakers in the opening plenary to launch the IUBS meeting. He spoke of the need to have a new system of measurement that would be capable of capturing the reality of sustainable development. He defined sustainability as opportunity and spoke of four kinds of capital, and what the new sciences are doing in ach case. He also emphasized the importance of capacity building in the developing countries.