Driven by the image of a plastic straw stuck in the nose of a turtle and the beaches filled with trash due to an over-consumer lifestyle, Green Joy was founded in 2018 by Ms. Vo Quoc Thao Nguyen – a female CEO starting a business after 8 years working in the banking industry – with the ambition to contribute to a greener and cleaner planet. Green Joy joined the community of businesses supporting the Women’s Empowerment Principles in June 2022, aiming to promote gender equality in the workplace, market, and community. Green Joy’s main products include grass straws and other eco-friendly utensils made from Lepironia grass, areca palm, focusing on serving the food service industry (Hotels, Restaurants, and Cafes). The products are plant-based, sustainable and affordable while still meeting the best quality standards, undergoing rigorous testing by leading certifiers such as SGS, Eurofins certification.
With the goal of becoming a leading and reliable supplier of sustainable grass straws globally and inspiring customers to lead a green lifestyle, after 5 years of establishment, Ms. Nguyen proudly mentions Green Joy’s impressive achievements: 80% of the total production is exported to countries with strict quality standards such as US, Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, Japan, Korea, participating in the supply chain for international luxury hotels and resorts in Vietnam such as: Intercontinental Hanoi Landmark 72, JW Marriott Hanoi, Mercure hotels, Fusion Maia Danang, Fusion Suites Vung Tau, Premier Village Phu Quoc resort, Havana Nha Trang Premium, Amarin resort & spa, Accor, Pullman as well as supermarket and restaurant chains such as Annam Gourmet, the Deck Saigon, Blank Lounge & Blank Bar, Topping Beef, etc. Green Joy is expected to bring positive impacts to the environment, contributing to the conservation of sustainable values of local communities, improving livelihoods and creating jobs with stable incomes for farmers, especially women.
Similar to many businesses supplying the tourism industry, Green Joy has also been affected recently by the downturn of the tourism industry in particular and the global economy in general due to the impact of the post-pandemic crisis.
However, it is worth mentioning that as a small business owned by women, Green Joy is facing various distinctive challenges while reaching out to new customers. Small and medium-sized buyers often have their procurement based on their relationship with old suppliers, or only work with new suppliers if being introduced by acquaintances; while large-scale restaurant and hotel chains with international standards have strict technical requirements and heavy procurement processes. This makes it difficult for women-owned and under-resourced small and medium-sized suppliers like Green Joy to get access to these buyers. A major challenge that female business leaders often face, as Ms. Nguyen shared, is the lack of relationships, which leads to difficult access to senior management, and purchasing departments of big hotel and restaurant chains. Another common difficulty that small and medium-sized female entrepreneurs still experience is the capacity and resources devoted to customer development, which is why Green Joy’s supply for large chains in the tourism industry has not been sustainably developed.
In fact, according to a report by the International Trade Center (ITC) on the current sales index of enterprises, more than a third of all global companies are owned by women, yet they receive only 1% of the total spending of public procurement and corporate procurement. Although there have been many initiatives to develop women-owned businesses in the Asia-Pacific region, many women-led enterprises are still left behind with very little opportunity to access suppliers due to the lack of necessary legal and policy frameworks to promote gender-responsive procurement.
Business Acceleration Program for women-owned businesses was launched in November 2023, as part of the WE RISE TOGETHER Project, implemented by UN Women and WISE. This program aims to address the challenges faced by women-owned businesses like Green Joy, enhance their market access capabilities, and promote inclusive and gender-responsive procurement practices within the tourism sector. Recently, through the support and networking activities provided by the Program, Green Joy successfully connected with two hospitality units in Da Nang, Melia Da Nang, and Dong Tien Bakery, with an expected consumption of nearly 500,000 straws per year. The company is also in negotiations with two other hotels in the area.
Supplier diversity and gender-responsive procurement (SD-GRP) are increasingly common practices in the business community around the world and in the region. Gender-responsive procurement is “the sustainable selection of services, goods, or civil works that takes into account the impact. on gender equality and women’s empowerment”. The two pillars of gender-responsible shopping are purchasing goods and services from women-owned businesses and gender-responsive businesses. This is a sustainable option to develop the brand and image of businesses aligned with social responsibility, women’s empowerment, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Furthermore, when diversifying suppliers through gender-responsible procurement, businesses are also applying ESG standards, aiming toward business efficiency improvement and sustainable development. Through the survey of UN Women in 2022, more than 70% of businesses claim that gender-responsible procurement has helped them increase available supply, saving an average of 20% in procurement costs, increasing innovation, and strengthening the company’s reputation; 76% of surveyed businesses agree that gender-responsive procurement also enhances employee satisfaction, making a positive contribution to human resource management and retention.
It can be seen that gender-responsible procurement is a great potential that needs to be exploited in both the public and private sectors. At the same time, promoting procurement from a diverse range of suppliers, particularly from women-owned businesses such as Green Joy, will ensure that women-owned suppliers enjoy access, fair and equal opportunity to compete, especially in industries with a large share of female entrepreneurs such as the tourism supply chain.
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The project “Promoting Gender-Responsive Procurement Through Diversity of Suppliers in the Tourism Industry in Vietnam” within the framework of the WE RISE Together program, implemented by UN Women and WISE, aims to promote supplier diversity by supporting women-owned businesses and gender-responsive businesses to have access and opportunities to participate in the supply chain of the tourism industry in Vietnam with activities on improving management capacity, market development, and gender equality. The program includes intensive training and consulting activities to upgrade product quality and value, gender-responsive business – in line with the strict requirements of major brand chains – export quality; and connect the market with potential customers.
