Today we got to visit GreenViet, a consulting company designated to determine if buildings are sustainable or not. GreenViet is a relatively new company, reaching the market 12 years ago. GreenViet has become extremely successful, by being the first green consulting company in Vietnam. They have become very successful by getting LEED certified. This certification is sought after by a lot of big international corporations. The main reasons that corporations will turn to GreenViet is their main goals, energy sustainability, clean indoor air, and design optimization. The co-founder, Mr. Quang, also talked focus on networking, commenting on how one of his first co-workers employed GreenViet on one of it’s first projects. This really helped boost GreenViet
While GreenViet works a lot on existing buildings they also will help optimize other businesses designing their own building. They use specialized software like a rotating sun simulation and heat simulations. This helps them predict the best ways to design their upcoming projects for implementing windows and solar panels. Something pretty interesting about solar panels in Vietnam, is if a building generates more power than is needed than they can sell their excess energy to the government.
Something that I have noticed so far that I found very surprising, is the buildings. Vietnam has a very dense population, so houses have to be very thin and squeezed in with many other houses. This is very different then what I’m used to, individual houses with yards all around. I am really enjoying living in a new country and experiencing new cultures. Meeting locals and learning about how they live their lives is extremely interesting. I really like it here, and hope that I can come visit again in the future.