Our carbon foot print should be like our vital signs — we should measure it regularly and if it increases, according to an IBM Executive.

Gary Austin, who is the Caribbean Region Industry Executive of IBM, was urging the public last night to try to change their frame of mind when it comes to the energy they consume.

It was during the fourth in a series of public meetings held by the Department of Energy within the Ministry of Energy, Telecommunications and E-Commerce.

His interactive presentation included asking for a volunteer to actually take her blood pressure, because he said in the future, like our blood pressure, we will be fully aware of the amount of carbon we use.

"A carbon foot print is a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the green house gas production and measured in terms of carbon dioxide," he said.

"Everything in our lives has a carbon foot print as it requires energy. We need to understand the measurement of these and what they do.

"We are going to have to look at the future with different lenses. Our carbon foot print must be a vital sign; wouldn't we want to know if it's increasing?"

Mr. Austin, who has travelled to Bermuda for the past 15 years, admitted that it might seem odd to have an IBM executive lead a meeting on energy.

However, IBM with it's 400,000 employees worldwide is the ninth largest companies in the world is also one of the greenest by employing its first corporate energy policy in 1971.

But like IBM, according to Mr. Austin, everybody has to have a Carbon Strategy.

"Every new building should be built with green in mind. Workloads- we need to look at that if people need to commute," he added.

Mr. Austin also addressed the desire by companies to be "green" now to attract more customers and there is also the desire to cut costs by turning to other types of energy.

The next town hall meeting will feature Dr. John Byrne, Nobel Prize winning member of the Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change "IPCC" and Director and Professor of Public Policy at the University of Delaware in the US.

Dr. Byrne is also an editor of the annual book series Energy and Environmental Policy and his recent book for the series included Environmental Justice — changes in the world energy system and the implications.

He will be on the Island to discuss among other things, the urgency of the Bermudian Plan to address the issue of Climate Change, review general trends and policies that work and a look at his role in the IPCC.

The meeting will be in room G301 at the Bermuda College on August 27 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and, like other talks in this series by the Department of Energy, will help develop a Public Consultation Document — a green paper.