Building the operating system for Zero Waste Tourism
Hội An did not lack environmental ambition.
The city had public commitments, active community groups and tourism businesses willing to reduce waste. What it lacked was an organisation able to connect these efforts into a system that worked every day.
REED was established to build that connection: a Vietnamese social enterprise specialising in Zero Waste Tourism and community-based circular resource systems. We work across business operations, community services and public systems—turning environmental commitments into practical services, local infrastructure and working partnerships.
Our flagship initiative, Hoi An Eco Hub: Community Zero Waste Center, shows what this role can achieve.
The journey from a hotel kitchen back to the soil
The idea grew from practical work initiated by Green Youth Collective.
Community gardens and land restoration work around Hội An needed compost and organic matter. At the same time, hotels, restaurants and markets were discarding food and garden waste every day.
Connecting the two revealed the real complexity of the system: Hotel staff had to separate materials correctly. Collection needed a reliable schedule. Processing required space, equipment, capable operators and quality control. The recovered resources needed safe and useful applications. Businesses, communities and public authorities had to agree on costs and responsibilities.
Every step belonged to a different actor. No one held the whole chain together.
The same pattern appeared with plastic packaging and other material flows. Each carried potential value, yet each required its own network of people, services and operating arrangements.
REED grew from this work. Established in 2020, it provided the professional delivery, accountable partnerships and destination-level operating capacity that GYC’s early experiments had begun to require.
Hội An made the scale of the challenge visible
An IUCN municipal solid waste audit showed that Hội An’s municipal waste had increased by an average of 9% annually between 2015 and 2019.
Businesses generated approximately 40% of the city’s waste—second only to households. Organic materials represented 66.77% of the waste audited, while plastic accounted for 15.22%.
These figures pointed towards several connected priorities.
Tourism businesses had an important role in changing what entered the local waste system. Organic resources required separation and appropriate local treatment in order to engage farmers and workers to operate the solution at community scale. Disposable products and packaging needed to be addressed before they became waste. Low-value plastics required different pathways from materials with established recycling markets.
The technical options were already known. Hội An needed the operating capability to connect them.
Taking responsibility for the space between actors
REED works in the part of environmental transition where many initiatives lose momentum: the space between a commitment and its daily execution.
A hotel may commit to reducing plastic, while its purchasing system, guest services and staff routines still need to change. Source separation requires collection routes and suitable pathway for each material. An organic-waste method depends on clean inputs, skilled operators, viable costs and users for the recovered products.
REED brings these elements into one operating system.
Our work moves from destination strategy to the practical details of material recovery. We engage multiple partners to address questions such as:
- Where is waste being created, and where can it be prevented?
- How should materials be separated, collected and monitored?
- Which resources can be recovered or used locally?
- What infrastructure and skills are required?
- Who will operate the service, and how will it be financed?
- How should responsibility and value be shared?
- What evidence will show whether the system is improving?
This ability to connect strategy, implementation and daily operations defines REED’s role as a Zero Waste Tourism systems partner.
From business commitments to operational change
Between 2020 and 2022, REED supported programmes that brought tourism businesses, Hoi An city authorities and the Quảng Nam Tourism Association into a shared waste-reduction framework.
IUCN reported that 36 businesses had made formal commitments by 2021. Programme records documented 58 participating businesses by the end of 2022. Across subsequent REED-supported programmes, more than 100 tourism businesses have taken part in raising awareness workshops, trainings and site visits.
The work included waste audits, action planning, staff training, monitoring and connections to local solution providers. It also revealed recurring barriers: limited alternatives to disposable plastic, inconsistent separation, organic resources without suitable destinations and a lack of practical benchmarks and incentives.
Some participating businesses later demonstrated what deeper operational change could achieve. Silk Sense Hoi An River Resort developed an extensive plastic-reduction system and became recognised as a hotel operating without plastic waste. The Field Restaurant developed closed-loop applications for food and organic resources and later received Viet Nam’s first Low-Carbon Tourism Standard certification.
These early adopters’ progress reflects the value of a local support ecosystem that provides knowledge, technical guidance, peer learning and practical solutions at time of transition needs, and over time.
Hoi An Eco Hub: the system in one working place
REED began developing and operating Hoi An Eco Hub in 2021 to provide the infrastructure that source separation requires.
The Eco Hub brings several functions into one place:
- Waste audits and operational support for tourism businesses and tourism destinations
- Source separation, collection and material recovery
- Decentralised organic-resource management
- Reuse and refill development with specialised partners
- Recovery initiatives for hospitality sector’s discarded soaps, linen, spent coffee grounds, used cooking oil and other materials
- Trials for difficult material streams
- Training for businesses, communities and public-sector stakeholders
- Learning experiences for students, practitioners and visitors
- Monitoring and continuous improvement
Its value lies in the connections between these activities.
Waste audits inform business procedures. Separated materials feed collection and processing services. Operational challenges shape new training and technical trials. Farms and gardens provide applications for recovered organic resources. Community activities make material flows visible to residents and visitors.
The work takes place under real conditions: contamination, staff turnover, changing tourism seasons, floods, collection costs, limited processing space and fluctuating markets for recovered materials.
Running this system has given REED a form of expertise that consultancy alone cannot provide. Every recommendation is tested against the realities of implementation.
From a community initiative to public infrastructure
A significant transition began in late 2025, when Hội An Ward assigned REED to operate an underused public facility in Cẩm Kim. In 2026, the merged Hoi An Eco Hub entered the area’s source-separation and collection system through cooperation with local government and community collection teams.
The facility now supports approximately 1,200 households with separate pathways for organic, recyclables and residual waste.
In July 2026, Hội An Ward’s Vice-Chairman reported that the Eco Hub was receiving and processing up to 400 kilograms of separated organic resources per day. Recyclables were being sorted into 15–16 material groups and connected with nearly ten recycling partners. The case was documented by Báo Nông nghiệp và Môi trường.
The operating knowledge, community relationships and service model were developed through several years of independent practice. Public infrastructure and a formal local role followed as that capability became visible.
An emerging public–private–community system now connects:
- Local government, providing public mandate, infrastructure and links with municipal services
- REED, contributing technical expertise, enterprise management and daily operating capacity
- Green Youth Collective, initiating community-based experimentation, mobilising youth and grassroots participation and operating the later stage of using compost and recovered outputs from processing organic waste into closed-loop farming and land restoration projects.
- Refillables Đong Đầy, advancing upstream waste prevention through reuse and refill solutions, helping reduce single-use materials before they enter the waste stream
- Communities (farmers, waste workers, youth, women..), participating through separation, collection, resource recovery, learning and local stewardship
- Tourism businesses, reducing waste upstream and joining the system via fee-based services for solid waste management
- Farms and gardens, returning recovered organic resources to productive use
- Development and technical partners, contributing research, finance, capacity building and specialist knowledge
The innovation lies in this operating relationship. It is the system that stays at heart of local communities and offers long-term coordination.
Making tourism part of the solution
Tourism shapes a destination’s material system long before waste reaches a bin.
Purchasing decisions determine which products and packaging enter the city. Service design influences what guests use and discard. Kitchen routines affect food waste. Staff practices determine whether materials remain clean enough for recovery.
REED therefore works at both ends of the system.
Upstream, we support waste prevention, purchasing changes, reuse and refill, service and operation redesign and source separation.
Downstream, we help establish collection, material recovery, organic-resource treatment and useful local applications.
This creates value beyond waste diversion. Local services become stronger. Communities gain practical roles in the circular economy. Tourism businesses reduce their environmental footprint. Organic resources can contribute to soil health and local food systems. Evidence from implementation can inform public planning.
Local expertise with wider relevance
The questions encountered in Hội An are shared by tourism destinations and municipalities across Viet Nam and Southeast Asia.
How can source separation work when collection and treatment remain fragmented? How can hospitality businesses reduce disposable plastic without compromising service quality? How can organic resources support agriculture and local livelihoods? What roles can communities and environmental enterprises play within municipal systems?
REED and its Founder and Chairwoman, Hanh Vu, have brought experience from Hội An into technical assignments addressing these questions at destination, national and regional levels.
Developing local business and destination systems
Selected engagements include:
- Businesses in Hội An Commit to Reduce Plastic Waste — IUCN, 2020–2021
- Supporting Business Engagement in Waste Reduction and Waste Recovery towards Hội An—a Green Destination— Pacific Environment, 2021
- Replication of Zero Waste Approaches and Initiatives in Tourism Sites in Quảng Nam — Pacific Environment, 2023–2024
These assignments connected business operations with destination planning, local solution providers and wider waste-recovery systems.
Adapting methods to other destinations
REED’s experience has informed assignments including:
- Phú Yên for Zero Waste — Institute for Development, Environment and Energy, 2022–2023
- Mitigating Marine Plastic Debris in Viet Nam — WWF-Viet Nam, 2023–2024
For WWF-Viet Nam’s programme in Côn Đảo, REED developed and piloted plastic-reduction guidance for tourism-service businesses and supported the expansion of organic-waste treatment and circular applications.
Each destination has different geography, tourism markets, institutions, communities and material flows. REED transfers methods and learning while designing the operating arrangements around each place.
Connecting waste, cities and climate resilience
Further technical engagements include:
- Reducing Short-Lived Climate Pollutants through Improved Municipal Solid Waste Practices in Viet Nam — Federation of Canadian Municipalities, 2021
- Local Solutions for Plastic Pollution — GreenHub, 2021
- Institutional Strengthening and Capacity Building for Sustainable Urban Development in Viet Nam — UN-Habitat, 2024–2025
- ASEAN Municipal Solid Waste Management Enhancement — GIZ, 2025
- Viet Nam Climate Resilient Municipalities — Federation of Canadian Municipalities, from 2025
These programmes connect solid-waste management with climate mitigation, urban governance, inclusive service delivery and the roles of community organisations and mission-led enterprises.
Contributing to national and regional collaboration
Experience from Hội An also contributes to wider professional networks and sector discussions.
REED and Hanh Vu provided technical and convening support to the 2024 Viet Nam Reuse Tour and Conference, which contributed to the establishment of the Viet Nam Reuse Hub.
In 2025, REED and Hanh Vu provided technical expertise and best practices, contributing to the launch of the Viet Nam Zero Waste Tourism Network, led by Pacific Environment and the Da Nang Tourism Association.
These platforms allow lessons from local practice to enter national, regional and international conversations about reuse, circularity and the future of tourism.
Women-led leadership built from years of grassroots activism
Hanh Vu is a Vietnamese sustainability practitioner with almost 20 years of experience across climate resilience, waste management, circular economy, community development and sustainable tourism, at multiple levels.
Her work connects three areas that are often separated:
Community practice — understanding how people use services, build trust, create livelihoods and respond to change.
Institutional partnership — working with authorities, development organisations and tourism associations to design programmes and coordination mechanisms.
Enterprise operation — building the teams, infrastructure, services and financial relationships required for consistent delivery.
She also gains professional expertise via special trainings, including Systems Thinking for International Development, CIRCO’s Creating Business through Circular Design programme and the GAIA–Mother Earth Foundation Zero Waste Academy, where she graduated as valedictorian of the 2023 global cohort.
Independent international coverage has described REED as a leading actor in Hội An’s tourism-sector Zero Waste movement. A 2025 Adventure.com feature situated REED and Hoi An Eco Hub within a wider network of businesses and environmental pioneers changing how tourism operates in the city. Destination-level change depends on many organisations carrying different parts of the system.
REED within the Green Youth Collective & Regenerative ecosystem
Green Youth Collective holds the wider vision for community-led regenerative systems. It initiates working models, develops community relationships and keeps the work connected to the long-term health of local places.
REED provides the operational layer.
It develops relevant models into professional services, infrastructure, enterprise relationships and public–private–community partnerships. Hoi An Eco Hub is the main place where this capability is practised, tested and made visible.
Other ecosystem organisations extend the system in complementary directions. Refillables Đong Đầy develops reuse and refill solutions upstream. REwild Việt Nam connects working places with learning, hospitality and Travel with Purpose. Farms and community gardens provide places where recovered organic resources, local knowledge and stewardship return to the land.
Together, these roles connect waste prevention, resource recovery, tourism operations, livelihoods, learning and local regeneration.
A destination changes through what it can operate
Zero Waste Tourism gains credibility through the local capability that sustains it: people who understand the material system, services that businesses and communities can use, infrastructure that connects separated resources with appropriate destinations, and partnerships that continue beyond individual projects.
Hoi An Eco Hub represents that capability taking shape.
It began as a community-rooted initiative, developed into a social enterprise-operated system and is now entering a formal relationship with public infrastructure and municipal services.
The system continues to evolve. Its journey already demonstrates something significant: a locally rooted environmental enterprise can connect community practice, tourism operations and public systems—and gradually build infrastructure that a destination can rely on.
This is REED’s contribution to Zero Waste Tourism: building the local capability that allows change to operate, learn and grow from within the destination.