OUR TIMELINE
We would like to express our sincere thanks to the experts, researchers, environmentalists, entrepreneurs and enthusiastic young people who joined us during this event! Your contribution to the environment will forever be acknowledge.
Each Day Videos will be posted to Vietnam Sach va Xanh’s Facebook Fanpage at 8PM. They will also be available the next day on this website.
#DAY 1: APRIL 23TH
THEME: ZERO WASTE
Prof. Dr. Paul Connett
Environmental Expert
Retired chemistry professor Paul Connett is the author of “The Zero Waste Solution: Untrashing the Planet One Community at a Time.” (Chelsea Green, 2013). Starting in 1985, Paul began working with communities to fight off incinerator proposals, helping launch a movement that has kept the US free of new incinerators for over two decades. Since 1999, Paul has also promoted the zero waste approach to sustainability, arguing that “ten steps (of zero waste) can change the world.” His pro-bono efforts have taken him to sixty-seven countries, and he iintends to visit Vietnam in November of 2020.
Dr. Chu Manh Trinh
ForeFather of Cham Marine Protected Area
Dr. Chu Manh Trinh is a manager with the Cham Islands Marine Protected Area (MPA) Authority and a lecturer in ecology at Da Nang Education University. He is recognized as one of the forefathers of Vietnamese protected areas, having devoted 15 years to the creation and management of the Cham Islands MPA. Among other distinctions, Cham Islands is a nationally-important destination for ecotourism, and has led the way in addressing marine plastic pollution, instituting the country’s first plastic bag ban in 2011.
Nhan Nguyen
Co-founder of Vietnam Sach & Xanh
Nhan was born in the US to Vietnamese parents. After growing up and working in the US, he moved to Vietnam in 2002 and started working at RMIT in 2003 where he has held a number of positions in both Academic and Administration departments. He holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters of Business Administration and currently, he is an Associate Lecturer teaching into Marketing, Management and Entrepreneurship courses. Aside from his primary work at RMIT, he is active in the Environmental and Sustainability community in Vietnam having started a number of initiatives. His current projects are Vietnam Clean & Green and the Vietnam Zero Waste Alliance.
Tran Thi Hoa
Director of GreenHub
Ms Hoa is currently the Director of GreenHub, one of leading environmental NGOs, which she co-founded in 2016, after identifying a real need for community based projects addressing waste management, matched with policy advocacy. In just four years, the organisation has had a tremendous impact, working on a range of projects in coastal regions with the goal of zero waste, collaborating with international research organisations, such as CSIRO to create a national marine debris database and providing expert knowledge to strengthen the National Action Plan on marine plastic waste management. Prior to working at GreenHub, Hoa worked at MCD Vietnam where she was the Head of Coastal resource management Department.
#DAY 2: APRIL 24TH
THEME: CLIMATE
Jean-Philippe Decka
Founder of PocketGreen
Jean-Philippe is a French entrepreneur who has been involved in several non-profit organizations such as The Shift Project, The Climate Collage and Printemps Écologique. His goal is to create awareness about Climate Change to inspire people to change their behavior and corporations to shift business models in respect of the Earth’s limits.
Khanh Pham
Candidate for Oregon State Representative
Community organizer and climate activist Khanh Pham is currently running for political office in the state of Oregon, USA. Khanh is Vietnamese-American, and if her campaign is successful she will become only the second Oregon House representative of Asian and Pacific Islander descent in the history of the state. Her campaign includes a Green New Deal policy platform—a vision for how the Green New Deal national plan for addressing climate change will be applied in Oregon. Khanh has a Master’s degree in Urban Studies, with a focus on climate change adaptation planning. She has worked as an community organizer and advocate at the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO) and OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon.
Tristan Louis
Continuous Improvement Referent at Decathlon
Tristan Louis is a French Engineer working for a Sporting Goods company as Continuous Improvement Manager. He is interested about environmental topics and the impact of the fashion industry on the planet. Deeply convinced that the best way to bring changes into the current business models is to initiate changes and to raise awareness inside important organizations. He is also part of the Climate Collage association to help to raise awareness about the climate change.
Phan Trung Minh Tue
Contact point of Climate Collage in Vietnam
Tue is an environment enthusiast working on climate change and plastic pollution. His main goal is to utilize his professional experience in managing high-level partnerships and conversations in business to make better the environment in Vietnam. At the moment Tue is the Coordinator in Grow Green Vietnam, the Advisor at Viet Nam Sach va Xanh (Keep Vietnam Clean and Green) and the contact point of Climate Collage organization in Vietnam.
A/Prof. Dr. Le Anh Tuan
Senior Lecturer, Vice Director Research Institute for Climate Change (DRAGON INSTITUTE - MEKONG)
Dr. Le Anh Tuan has been working at Can Tho University since 1982 and currently holds the position of Senior Lecturer at the College of Environment and Natural Resources. He also is the Vice Director of the Research Institute for Climate Change – Can Tho University, Vietnam. Tuan completed his Bachelor of Engineering in Water Management and Land Improvement at Can Tho University, Vietnam in 1982 and then, he got Master of Engineering degree in Water Resources Engineering at Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand in 1990. He finished PhD. in Applied BioSciences and Engineering, specialized in Environmental Hydrology at Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. In 2012, Dr. Tuan was official recognized as an Associate Professor in Earth Sciences of Can Tho University.
Wolfgang Friess
Co-Founder of Live Forever Young Collective
Wolfgang has 30 years of knowledge & wisdom in health, wellness, nutrition, education & train-ing, agriculture and sustainability. He holds knowledge on new science and ancient wisdom of several cultures. Holding a Master of Science from France, a Master of Business from Germany and certificates from Austria, Switzerland and Vietnam he is most proud of the diploma given to him from mother nature and from the forest.
#DAY 3: APRIL 25TH
THEME: BUSINESS
John Christopher Walsh
Program Manager, International Business RMIT University
John Walsh received his PhD at Oxford University in 1997 for a thesis related to international market penetration strategies and the success of UK companies in Korea, Japan and Taiwan. He has lived and worked in Sudan, Greece, South Korea, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Thailand and, from 2-18, Vietnam, as well as the United Kingdom. He has also taught undergraduate, graduate and doctoral courses in several countries and school leaders in Mandalay and Kathmandu for previous positions, during which time he taught courses on International business, marketing, management, business, human resources, finance and others. He graduated more than 20 students to doctoral level and helped students achieve scholarships and sponsored seminar trips to Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Cambodia and others. As director of the research center, he has gained research grants from a range of international partners, including UNCTAD, GiZ, Ministry of Industry (Laos), World Bank and others. He has also organized and organized several international conferences and edited several academic journals, as well as regional editor (Southeast Asia) for Emerald’s emerging market case studies series.
Thu Vu
Founder of Coco Dressing Room Vietnam
Thu earned a Degree in Fashion (Merchandising Management) from RMIT Vietnam and won the “Discipline of Fashion” awards for her achievements at the University and in the fashion industry.
Thu has been working in various roles including Fashion Writer, Image Consultant, Stylist, Show Director and so on. She has been adding prominent names into her list of clientele, including Coca-Cola, CPA Australia, Grant Thornton, Manulife.
Thu is the founder of CDR Vietnam. The company aims to become the largest online fashion consignment store in Vietnam. CDR sees itself as a business with purpose since its business model is built based on circular economy principles leading to better economic, societal, and environmental outcomes.
Nguyen Thi My Linh
Lecturer of RMIT University
Dr Linh Nguyen has had 5 years teaching and researching in finance and accounting. She received her PhD degree from Queensland University of Technology, Australia. She is also a regular member of CFA institute and CFA Society Singapore
Dr.Huy Pham
Lecturer in Finance RMIT University
Huy Pham is a lecturer in Finance at RMIT University in Vietnam. He obtained his Ph.D. from University of South Australia and worked at various universities in Australia and Vietnam prior to joining RMIT University. His research interests are in the fields of FinTech, cryptocurrencies, environmental finance, asset pricing and empirical finance. He has published his work in a wide range of academic journals including Accounting and Finance and Economic Modelling among many others. He is often approached for expert comments on financial and economic issues from various local and international premium news outlets such as Nikkei Asian Review and Vietnam Investment Review.
#DAY 4: APRIL 26TH
THEME: FOOD
Chef Jack Lee & Chiara Squinzi & Pascale Fioretti
Interviewed by Celebrity Chef Jack Lee
Celebrity Chef & Co-Founders La Holista in HCMC
Founder and co-owner of HCM holistic health and wellness company La Holista, Chiara Squinzi is a Functional Medicine Practitioner, Health Coach, Vegan Nutritionist and Yoga Teacher, with a passion for food that is nutritious and delicious. After working as a Health Coach and Wellness Event Manager in Shanghai, Chiara founded La Holista in 2014 in HK and then in Vietnam, at first offering nutrition consultancy and a recipe book. Then she developed whole-food plant-based products and wellness community events.
Co-owner of La Holista, Pascale Fioretti is an Executive Coach, NLP Practitioner and entrepreneur with a passion for wildlife and the environment. When joining La Holista back in 2016, Pascale made it her goal to reduce the company’s carbon footprint through various green initiatives. Over the years, this involved working with local suppliers to be provided with reusable containers, supplying biodegradable packaging wherever possible, reusing bottles and containers, encouraging individuals to bring their own containers, and composting the kitchen organic scraps.
Chiara is also a TedX Speaker for TayHo Women Hanoi and together with Pascale and the team they have been inspiring the community through education with cooking classes, outdoor events, a yearly Holistic Fair, documentary nights and also by supporting the work of Dr. Greger with the provision of the official Vietnamese translations of his videos for the last 2 years.
Leonie Hofsaess
Founder of Bees4life
Leonie Hofsaess is an environmentalist, economist and writer. She founded Bees4life in 2018 to raise awareness about endangered insects, especially bees. Since then, the organization has been analyzing the causes but also the possible solutions to insect extinction and sharing information online. In 2019, the organization started getting more active on the ground: giving speeches about bees, co-founding initiatives such as an organic farmer’s market, a community garden and organizing workshops related to green living. In addition, Bees4life chairwoman Jessika Graf traveled around the world to visit bee-friendly projects and tell their stories to a more and more broader audience.
Claudia Lifton
Founder of Factory Farming Awareness Coalition
Claudia Lifton is an environmental, human and animal rights activist who’s devoted the last decade of her life to the pursuit of food justice. She spent the year of 2013 in parts of Africa and South East Asia working to end poaching, exploitative wildlife tourism, overfishing and hunger. As the Denver Director for the Factory Farming Awareness Coalition since 2014, she speaks to thousands of high school and college students each year about the environmental, animal welfare, public health and workers rights impacts of factory farming.
#DAY 5: APRIL 27TH
THEME: BUSINESS & CLIMATE
Ameer, Kori, Nick, Nia
IMPACT Vietnam
Starting from the left:
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Nick is the General Manager of Khiri Travel Vietnam. Having worked at Khiri for three years, Nick has been responsible for their sustainability initiatives within the country as well as leading the product design of their new tours, where a focus on sustainability is a prerequisite. In 2018, Nick was a co-founder of the IMPACT Vietnam group.
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Nia is the Regional Sustainability Coordinator for Khiri Travel and the Director of Khiri Reach Foundation. Nia has worked in sustainable tourism development in South East Asia from 2013 onwards and is now assisting in making all 7 Khiri destinations more sustainable and responsible with focus on the triple-bottom-line: People, Planet, Profit.
- Kori is Business Development Director for Destination Asia Vietnam and also in charge of sustainability for the country’s 3 offices. With 7 years experience in tourism in Southeast Asia, she built an international profile studying in Tahiti, France and Colombia and working in Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar.
- Ameer is Group Sustainability Coordinator for Asian Trails, tasked with developing responsible tourism initiatives in the 8 destinations the company operates in. He is based in Vietnam and has previously worked in Cambodia and Myanmar for DMCs and NGOs.
Nguy Thi Khanh
Director of GreenID Vietnam
Director of GreenID in Hanoi, Khanh Nguy was awarded the international Goldman Prize in 2018 for excellence in climate advocacy. Khanh has used scientific research to highlight the cost and environmental impacts of coal power and to engage with government in planning for transition to sustainable energy. She envisions a Vietnam that is no longer dependent on coal and has moved toward a greener energy future.
Dr. Spencer Phillips
Founder and Economist of Key-Log Economics Vietnam
Spencer is an ecological economist who helps people better understand, communicate, and act on solid information about the value of the environment. He previously did this work at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, as Executive Director of NorthWoods Stewardship Center, and as a staff economist and then Vice President for Ecology and Economics Research at The Wilderness Society. Spencer’s current research focuses on ecosystem service values—especially as affected by climate change, land and resource management, and water quality regulation—and on the economic development implications of land stewardship. He has lectured in micro-, environmental, and ecological economics, as well as natural resource policy and spatial analysis for public policy at the University of Virginia. Spencer’s B.A. in economics is from the University of Virginia, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Agricultural and Applied Economics are from Virginia Tech.
OUR ORGANIZERS
