Green Youth Collective is a not-for-profit organization with a mission to promote sustainable practices in Ho Chi Minh City and surrounding areas. They train disadvantaged local youth to install green roofs, vertical gardens, and container gardens. To further their educational goals, Green Youth Collective is establishing a 6,000 square meter education center in District 9 on the Dong Nai river to demonstrate sustainable products and train youth and community members in areas like permaculture, natural building, and organic gardening. The education center will be a fully integrated system with natural buildings, organic gardens, aquaculture, animals, waste reduction, and renewable energy to inspire visitors and create awareness of more sustainable alternatives.

1. Green Youth Collective
District 9 Sustainable Living Education Centre
Mission
Green Youth Collective is a small, collective-based not for profit business with the mission of creating
a greater awareness and interest in “Green” and sustainable products and practices in HCMC and area. The
direct beneficiaries of the business we are creating will be local disadvantaged youth who have been trained
by GYC to assemble, install, and maintain green roofs, vertical and container gardens.
Connected Vision
While our focus is on urban sustainability, the heart of our hands-on workspace is located in District
9, right on a branch of the Dong Nai river. GYC has realized that for all we hope to accomplish, we need a
large space to carry out our experiments, demonstrate our products, and educate our future employees. The
land in D9 is 6000 square meters, and will be our education center for hands-on learning.
This will be a space designed to inspire the youth and anyone who comes to visit. We envision hosting
both local and international courses in areas such as Permaculture, natural building, natural product making,
design, organic gardening, meditation, yoga, traditional crafts, or whatever area someone is motivated to host
a course in. The Green Youth will also be trained here, so for a few months before they begin their job of
installing our products, they will get hands on experience with the soil, seeds, building, maintaining,
planning and designing.
Cultural respect and acknowledgement is also a key aspect to our educational goals, as the ‘farming’
lifestyle unfortunately has a negative stigma in society of being a difficult and poor life. Yet, it is the
foundation of Vietnam’s heritage, and respect of its cultural traditions which were so connected with the
Earth must be preserved for future generations. We hope to empower local elders by creating a space where
they can pass down their knowledge to the urban youth and feel the joy of being in their natural role, as
teachers of the next generation.
Experimentation and constant innovation is crucial for our future growth and sustainability, and this
land will provide a space where we can create and design different systems and products that will then be
sold to the residents of HCMC and installed by our beneficiaries.
Organic seeds are a major need for our claim of organic gardens to become a reality, and as a result
we will also focus on saving seeds at the land. At this time, there is no good source of organic seeds in
Vietnam, and we intend to change that by providing non-hybrid, heirloom seeds to our customers and
associates.
Besides our initial product of gardens for the urban environment, we will constantly be expanding our
available accessories, which will be largely made from natural supplies at the farm. These will include organic
pesticides and fertilizers, natural soaps and cleaning products, oils, and even food products and health drinks.
These accessories will provide both an income for GYC, and also jobs for our beneficiaries.
The design of the land is a completely integrated system which includes natural buildings, organic
gardens, aquaculture systems, animal systems, waste reduction and recycling systems, and renewable and
alternative energy. We do not necessarily expect for many of these systems to be replicated within the city,
but rather to simply inspire and create awareness of how much our society wastes and produces. Also, to
show an alternative that will motivate urban residents to make small efforts to do their part, and in turn help
both the Earth and GYC.