Tram Nguyen works as a Sustainability Coordinator in the tourism and hospitality sector, supporting a destination management company and a hotel group across Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in building and implementing their sustainability strategies. Since 2018, waste management has been an essential part of her work across both the private sector and NGOs.
What keeps Tram going is discovering local, creative ideas that actually divert waste from landfills. Her interest is food waste prevention, and she loves finding ways to combine on-the-ground operational insights with simple, practical approaches that help teams make a real difference in their daily routines.
Throughout this journey, Tram has learned that knowledge alone doesn’t solve the problem. It takes a network of people who truly own the solutions to make them last.
“I am involved in Global Waste Lab Academy because I really appreciate Zoë’s approach of valuing local talent and practical, grounded solutions. It aligns with my own thinking that we should not always reinvent the wheel. Despite geographical contexts, waste managers in different places often face similar challenges, and I think it is important that we do not feel alone in this journey, but are able to learn from each other.
“I chose to write a course on Food waste management: what works in practice, because I have been working with food waste for several years. I also have a personal connection to food and believe it should be used at its highest value. Food waste is both an environmental and social issue, and what I find most interesting is that it always requires creativity, empathy, and an understanding of the local context.
“Through my work, I realised that solving environmental problems, especially food waste issues, is not only about technical knowledge, but also about helping people truly understand the issue and take the ownership of the solutions. Because only when the solutions are fully understood and owned, they last for a long time.
“This course is not about listing the technical background of all food waste prevention methods, it should rather function as hints for decision making and problem solving. Through this, I hope learners can set themselves easier in the context, shorten the time between understanding a problem and feeling confident enough to start tackling it, even in a small way, and recognise themselves in some examples for a few “aha moments” along the way.”