Why locally rooted working models need a different evaluation lens
Working models like these cannot be assessed only as time-bound projects delivering predetermined outputs. They are initiated, operated and continually adapted by local intermediaries such as the GYC ecosystem—organisations embedded in the place, connecting actors that would not otherwise work together and carrying much of the operational risk themselves.
Their value therefore lies not only in what they produce, but in whether they build local capability, keep infrastructure functioning, sustain relationships, mobilise different sources of finance, learn from failure and continue responding as local conditions change. Evaluation should examine these less visible forms of system capacity alongside measurable environmental, social and economic results.
Local practice recognised globally
Selected for the GLFx network in 2025
Green Youth Collective became the first organisation from Vietnam selected to host a local restoration chapter within the Global Landscapes Forum’s GLFx network.
Through GLFx Quang Nam (now named GLFx Da Nang), our locally developed work in Zero Waste, circular food systems, regenerative farming, agroforestry and community learning became part of a global network of locally rooted organisations restoring landscapes and strengthening livelihoods.
The recognisation’s value lies in connecting experience from Hội An and Gò Nổi with other communities confronting similar ecological and social challenges—and bringing global learning back into local practice.
Read the Global Landscapes Forum announcement →
From participation to changed operations
100+ tourism businesses engaged
Between 2021 and 2023, under the partnership between Hoi An government and former Quang Nam Tourism Association, and other Hoi An government’s outreaching programme, REED engaged more than 100 tourism businesses through waste-reduction training, technical advice, waste assessments and site-based learning.
50+ businesses made formal commitments
Between 2020 and 2023, via REED’s technical advice and coordination, more than 50 tourism and hospitality businesses signed commitments with Hoi A government and former Quang Nam Tourism Association to reduce waste. The concrete actions at operational level including waste audits, changing procurement to refuse unnecessary single-use plastics, waste segregation across the operation, composting on site, connecting with recycling partners.. The process of fulfilling commitments at business and destination level helped inform the branding “Hoi An – a green destination” adopted by the local governments and provided credible experiences for Zero Waste practices became widely expected within the tourism sector in Hoi An and other destinations in Vietnam.
Some businesses continued much further. Silk Sense River Resort Hội An and The Field Hội A redesigned parts of their operations and later received independent sustainability certifications. These achievements belong to the businesses themselves; REED’s contribution was earlier technical guidance and support for their waste-management transition.
Silk Sense River Resort’s progress →
The Field’s Low-Carbon Tourism certification →
10+ businesses divert materials through our operations
More than ten tourism and hospitality businesses currently do more than attend training or make commitments. They separate and direct specific materials through systems operated by REED and its partners.
Hotels provide discarded soap and linen through Soap for Hope and Linens for Life. Restaurants and cafes supply used cooking oil and spent coffee grounds. Markets and other local sources separate organic resources for local treatment.
This requires practical changes inside each business: new separation routines, staff responsibilities, storage arrangements and collection procedures. It is this operational connection—not participation alone—that enables materials to remain in useful circulation.
From demonstration to shared public-private-community partnership
1 Zero Waste public facility · a municipal plan covering 1,222 households
In 2026, Hội An government assigned REED to operate an underused public facility as Hoi An Eco-Hub: Community Zero Waste Center.
The Hub was formally connected to Cẩm Kim’s municipal source-separation and collection system. The implementation plan covers 1,222 households, alongside local businesses, and defines responsibilities across the local authority, REED, public-service providers, neighbourhood groups and community organisations.
This represents an important institutional shift. REED has moved from advising government and demonstrating solutions through projects to holding a recognised operational role within a local public-service system.
The partnership does show how proven local capacity can become part of the way public services are organised and delivered.
Materials returned to useful circulation
1+ tonne of hotel soap
2+ tonnes of discarded linens
0.5+ tonne of spent coffee grounds and used cooking oil
Since 2018, these materials have been collected and directed into different pathways for reprocessing, repurposing, community redistribution or recycling.
The numbers represent more than materials recovered. Each pathway requires participating businesses, separation standards, collection arrangements, appropriate processing, local operators and a viable next use. Without these connections, separated materials would still have nowhere useful to go.
Data on other dry materials processed through Hoi An Eco-Hub is still being consolidated and is not yet included in these figures.
Approximately 200 kg of organic resources per operating day
During 2024–early 2026, Hoi An Eco-Hub received and processed approximately 200 kg of organic resources on an average operating day, per one local operator. The closed-loop system combines aerobic composting, chicken-assisted processing, vermicomposting, bokashi and black soldier flies to produce compost, soil amendments and animal feed for local farming and gardening. A diverse and nature-based technology system allows local operators to divert a certain amount into useful and regenerative pathway.
The organics management system reconnects an urban material flow with local soil, food production and livelihoods.
Local capability becomes part of the infrastructure
500+ women and household representatives
Between 2021 and 2023, REED trained more than 500 women and household representatives from neighbourhood communities in Hội An.
The programmes covered source separation, plastic reduction, on-site composting, reuse, repurposing and recycling. Training alone does not create a functioning system, but it builds the practical knowledge needed for households and community groups to participate in one.
12 local practitioners in paid roles
Twelve local practitioners now hold paid, insured roles across resource recovery, farming, land stewardship, hospitality and learning facilitation.
They are not positioned only as project beneficiaries. They operate facilities, care for land, host visitors, share local knowledge and adapt the systems through everyday experience.
Their roles demonstrate an important part of regenerative development: local knowledge and environmental care must become valued work.
Land remains under active care
150+ useful plant species
More than 150 plant species are propagated, planted and used across land-restoration and community-gardening initiatives.
They include species selected for ecological suitability, resilience under local conditions and cultural usefulness—as food, medicine, habitat, biomass, shade or other everyday purposes.
The aim is to keep useful biodiversity and local plant knowledge alive by putting them back into landscapes and community practice.
60,000 m² under active stewardship and monitoring
Across Hội An and Gò Nổi, approximately 60,000 m² of land is under active regenerative care.
Stewardship includes propagation, planting, soil improvement, water-management trials, habitat creation, natural-regeneration monitoring and adaptation following drought, heavy rain and seasonal flooding.
Three places where the work continues
These systems are currently operated through three community-rooted working places:
- Hoi An Eco-Hub: Community Zero Waste Center in Cẩm Kim
- Hoi An Medicinal Garden in Triêm Tây
- REwild Floodplain Agro-ecosystem Restoration Learning Hub in Gò Nổi
They are working places where regenerative systems are operated, tested and adapted under real environmental, social and economic conditions.
Together, they allow different parts of a wider system—material recovery, useful plants, soil, farming, land restoration, community learning and regenerative tourism—to support one another.
How to read these figures
We report these numbers with clear boundaries:
- Business participation, signed commitments and active material diversion represent different levels of engagement. Some businesses appear in more than one category.
- The 1,222 households represent the planned municipal catchment, not a claim that every household is already participating consistently.
- Material-recovery figures include only streams for which operational records are available. Other dry-waste data is still being consolidated.
- Business certifications are the achievements of the businesses concerned. REED claims only its documented advisory contribution.
- Land under stewardship is not the same as land already restored. Ecological recovery requires long-term monitoring.
Our next measure of progress is not simply whether these numbers become larger. It is whether the systems behind them become more reliable, locally owned and capable of continuing beyond individual projects.