My roommate Andrew and I kicked off the morning with a visit to Highlands Coffee, a local chain that several of the UEF students had enthusiastically recommended. I ordered a black iced coffee, and I can say without any hesitation that it was one of the best drinks I have ever tasted. Safe to say, morning trips to Highlands have now become a non-negotiable part of my routine for the rest of this trip. After breakfast, we jumped straight into our first class of the trip. The lecture opened with a discussion on sustainability and why corporations would actually want to overhaul their business practices to meet modern environmental standards. The two biggest takeaways I walked away with were that sustainability becomes attractive to businesses when they can identify a measurable return on their investment, and that growing pressure from customers and investors to prioritize environmental responsibility is increasingly too loud to ignore.The most engaging part of the morning came next, when we had to pitch a startup concept that adapted a successful United States business model for the Vietnamese market. My group landed on adding subscription services to local convenience stores, arguing that a well-structured membership model could lower the cost of goods sold and drive stronger customer retention over time. Unlike American shoppers who tend to stock up on weekly or monthly grocery runs, most Vietnamese consumers buy their groceries the same day they plan to use them. Fresh, daily shopping is simply the cultural norm here, which means a subscription-based model built around bulk purchasing would face a much steeper uphill battle in Vietnam than it would back home. It was a humbling and a useful reminder that a good idea in one market does not automatically translate to another. The afternoon took a more lighthearted turn when we shifted to a short Vietnamese language lesson. Before we even got to the words, we were served a spread of traditional Vietnamese desserts. My first instinct, looking at them, was skepticism. The textures and presentations were unlike anything I had grown up eating. But I pushed past the hesitation, worked my way through several different flavors, and came around on them completely. As for the language, we learned to introduce ourselves, tôi tên là Chris, meaning my name is Chris, and how to ask someone else theirs, còn bạn?, or “and you?” Saying small phrases in front of someone who is fluent in the language you are trying to speak is something I have never experienced before, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
After our classes finished, we raced to make it to lunch because we had a site visit just an hour away. We were introduced to several new dishes such as a mango-based salad, chicken wrapped in octopus, and a beef dish served alongside fresh vegetables. The chicken and octopus combination was unlike anything I had eaten before, and it has already claimed the top spot as my favorite meal of the trip so far. We arrived at the Park Hyatt Ho Chi Minh City with just enough time to catch our breath before stepping into one of the most impressive properties I have ever seen in person. After a brief introduction covering the history of the Hyatt brand and its current mission, we were guided through a full tour of the hotel’s amenities, and the scale of the operation became clear very quickly.The detail that stuck with me most was learning that Square One, one of the hotel’s signature restaurants, has earned a Michelin star recognition for three consecutive years. That kind of sustained recognition does not happen by accident, and it added an extra layer of credibility to the rest of the tour. What impressed me beyond the prestige was how the hotel has woven sustainability into its daily operations. QR codes have replaced printed room service menus and informational materials, and the air conditioning system is programmed to shut off automatically when a room is unoccupied .The sustainability initiative that stood out most, however, was the hotel’s use of Leanpath’s Lumitics food waste management system. According to the company, businesses that implement Lumitics can see returns on investment of 200% to 1,000% within the first year of use. That is a remarkable figure that reframes the sustainability conversation entirely. When reducing food waste produces that kind of financial return, it stops being a sacrifice and becomes a straightforward business decision.
After the site visit, I found myself sitting with a question that the hotel visit had raised. A luxury brand with global resources can absorb the upfront costs of sustainability initiatives and wait for the returns to materialize. But what about the small and medium-sized businesses that make up the backbone of Vietnam’s economy? One of the core tensions we discussed in lecture was that the initial cost of becoming more sustainable can be prohibitively high, and for a country still in the process of economic development, implementing new technology can be expensive. It is the daily reality for countless local businesses operating on tight margins. It is a question I do not yet have a clear answer to, but one I intend to keep pressing throughout this trip. As we visit more businesses and hear more perspectives, I want to explore what a realistic path to sustainability actually looks like for companies that cannot afford a complete operational overhaul. Finding that middle ground might be the most important thing I take home from this experience.