GreeningVietnam Project

Background:

Dat Ngan Thuy (“Dat”), a Clark IDCE student, met with me in September and proposed a project to address the environmental and health problems in her home country. We agreed to start by focusing on the Vietnamese businesses and NGOs in South Vietnam using a network of Clark Vietnamese students, alumni as well as other Vietnamese colleagues. Dat then contacted Nga Le (“Helen”), a Clark alum and Managing Director of Sharp Ideas (SI), a consulting firm in Ho Chi Minh City and gained her support.

Below is a summary of the current situation in Vietnam:

  • Urbanization, planning, industrialization, and intensive farming are having a negative impact on Vietnam’s environment.
  • These factors have led to air pollution, water pollution, and noise pollution, particularly in urban and industrial centers like Ho Chi Minh Cityand Hanoi.
  • The most serious problem is waste treatment. Land use pressures have led to significant environmental problems, including severe deforestation, soil erosion, and sedimentation of rivers, flooding in the deltas, declining fish yields, and pollution of the coastal and marine environment.
  • The use of Agent Orange by the U.S. military in the Second Indochina War, or Vietnam War, (1954– 75) has had a lingering effect on Vietnam in the form of persistent environmental contamination that has increased the incidence of various diseases and birth defects. [1]
  • Companies are now facing challenges in energy efficiency and environmental issues such as solid waste management, water pollution, air pollution, and high carbon emission.
  • Vietnam is considered one of the most vulnerable countries impacted by climate change and sea level rise, which directly impacts the communities’ environment, energy, water quality and public health.
  • Low awareness by Vietnamese of what action to take.

Objectives:

Dat is in the process of establishing a network to assist with this project. At the same time, she is developing a comprehensive project plan by the end of November to address the challenges by engaging the Vietnamese government, businesses and NGOs.

Objective of this project are to:

  • Increase awareness within the Vietnamese people to enable them to improve the environmental conditions and health of the community.
  • Educate Vietnamese business leaders regarding the benefits of operating in an environmentally sustainable manner.
  • Assist the companies in the development of Sustainability Plans which enable the implementation of green initiatives; e.g., energy efficiency, waste management, water conservation, fostering sustainable behavior, greening supply chain operations, etc.
  • Provide best practices, tools and on-going support (by Sharp Ideas) to enable successful implementation of the Sustainability Plans.

Background:

Initiatives:

To achieve the objectives, there will be a set of initiatives which will be planned, funded and implemented starting in 2011. These include:

  • Community Outreach
  • Organic Gardens
  • Green Business Workshops

Plans for each initiative are under development.

Initiative: Community Outreach

Leader: Tra Van Tung

Background:

Description of Initiative:

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Initiative: Organic Gardens

Leader: Dat Ngan Thuy

Background:Organic agriculture in Vietnam has not been successful due to many reasons such aslack ofawareness and knowledge of farmers, agricultural price volatility, low yield compared tochemical agriculture,unaffordable for consumers due to high prices and lack of legislative support, etc.

Many foreign companies have attempted to implement organic agriculture in Vietnam, but they were not successfulbecause they did not understand Vietnamese culture and agricultural market. However, there are some companies which have been successful with organic agriculture, but in small scales.

Description of Initiative:

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Initiative: Green Business Workshops

Leaders: Nga Le (Helen) & Will O’Brien

Background:

Currently, in-country sponsorship of this project is provided by Helen, Managing Director of Sharp Ideas located in HCMC. is working with the Vietnam Young Entrepreneurs Association (VYEA) to broaden support for this work.

VYEA is an apex organization of Young Business Associations of Vietnam representing the voice of over 8000 young successful entrepreneurs who are hiring over 1 million employees and generating about USD 8 billion per year.

Founded in 2002, assembling 54 provincial and sector business associations nationwide, VYEA is a leading business association with the highest membership growth rate, the largest local network and is working its way to be the largest business association in Vietnam. Being anchored under Vietnam Youth Federation (VYF) and enjoying strong backing from Vietnam National Committee for Youths, VYEA has proved itself as the most efficient bridge linking the Government, authorities and business communities of Vietnam.

Description of Initiative:

Initially, the focus will be on businesses by providing a series of workshops in early 2011 starting in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), followed by sessions in Da Nang and Hanoi.It is proposed that workshops be conducted during mid-July in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang.

Attendees of the seminar will be invited to participate in the Sustainable Business Leaders Certification Program which will be developed based on the program currently available in the U. S.

Workshop Audiences and Estimated Attendees:

  • Sharp Ideas Leaders
  • Business Owners/Managers

Helen has estimated that a minimum of 200 attendees will participate in the workshops.

Workshop Topics:

An agenda for the workshops is being developed by Helen. Below is a list of possible topics:

  • Business Strategy - the business reasons for going green
  • Preparing a Sustainability Plan (Green Business Plan) - how to do it
  • Energy Efficiency - how to reduce energy costs
  • Entrepreneurship & Innovation - developing green products and services
  • Fostering Sustainable Behavior within your organization
  • Green IT - reduce your IT costs
  • Green Marketing – increasing consumer awareness re: environmental sustainability
  • Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
  • Recycling - reducing waste expenses
  • Renewable Energy: Geothermal, Solar, Wind
  • Supply Chain Management - how to make your suppliers more environmentally sustainable
  • Sustainability Reporting – communicating to stakeholders re: your environmental commitment, goals, initiatives, strategy and progress
  • Water Conservation - reduce your water costs

Estimated Expenses:

A detailed budget for the Green Business Workshops for HCMC, Da Nang and Hanoi is being developed at this time.Below are the current estimates for HCMC only.

Funding Sources:

Upon completion of the plan, we will explore possible funding sources including:

  • Ford Foundation
  • Mosakowski Institute

Performance Metrics:

Success of the workshops will be measured by:

  • Number of attendees at each workshop
  • Feedback from participants obtained by a formal survey at the end of each workshop
  • Number of attendees who sign up for the Sustainable Business Leaders Certification Program.

Greening Vietnam Project Team Members & Stakeholders:

Below is information regarding the current members of the team and stakeholders committed to helping Vietnam to become environmentally sustainable.

  • Dat Ngan Thuy
  • Huynh Tung
  • Nga Le (Helen)
  • Will O’Brien - a former business executive, change agent, entrepreneur, consultant, teacher and attorney. Following his retirement, after working in technology firms such as Digital Equipment Corporation for many years, he has been teaching management courses at Bentley University, Suffolk University and MA Maritime Academy. He is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of management at Clark University Graduate School of Management. Out of his own emerging interest, Will turned his focus to environmental sustainability in business. A couple of years ago, he created a center through which his students prepare sustainability plans for businesses, non-profits and municipalities. Since then, student teams from these graduate schools have created/delivered plans for over 50 organizations to help them “go green”. Will spent almost a year in Da Nang as a Lieutenant in the US Navy “Seabees”. During that time, he was fortunate to know a Vietnamese family. He has a made a commitment to work with Vietnamese students and alumni to help improve the country.
  • Joseph Sarkis - a Professor of operations and environmental management at Clark University in their Graduate School of Management. Clark University is a small research and teaching oriented university located in Central Massachusetts. For its small size it offers a relatively comprehensive graduate and undergraduate program. Joe earned his Ph.D. in Management Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo (also called the University of Buffalo). He spent about 5 years at the University of Texas at Arlington as an Assistant and Associate Professor in their School of Business. His teaching interests cover a broad range of topics including operations management, logistics, supply chain management, corporate environmental management, management of technology, international management, information systems and technology, and also some entrepreneurship. This range of interests also appears in Joe’s research and publications. He has published on his own and with a wide variety of co-authors in numerous publication outlets with over 250 publications.

[1] Wikipedia