The Green Transition in Vietnam’s Industrial Parks: Part 2 – Implementation, Energy, and Circular Models

With a standardized legal framework for eco-industrial parks now in place, Vietnam’s green transition is increasingly being shaped by how policies translate into on-the-ground implementation. While Part One of this series examined the regulatory foundations and evolution of eco-industrial park (EIP) policy, this second article focuses on the practical mechanisms by which industrial parks reduce emissions, improve resource efficiency, and strengthen competitiveness.

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Operational clarity for cleantech investment across Asia

Across Vietnam, industrial park developers and tenants are accelerating the adoption of renewable energy, circular economy practices, and internationally recognized green standards. Rooftop solar systems, on-site renewable generation, industrial symbiosis, and certification tools are becoming central to how industrial parks respond to tightening ESG requirements, carbon-related trade measures, and investor expectations.

Together, these developments illustrate how Vietnam’s industrial parks are moving beyond compliance-driven sustainability toward more integrated, market-oriented green infrastructure models, positioning them as a critical platform for the country’s broader net-zero and export competitiveness objectives.

See also: Green Transition in Vietnam’s Industrial Parks: Policy Foundations

Increasing renewable energy use in industrial parks

Potential for renewable energy in Vietnam’s industrial parks

With a 3,260-kilometer-long coastline and tropical monsoonal climate, Vietnam has abundant renewable energy resources. These conditions also make it particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, creating an urgent need to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change.

According to Decision No. 768/QD-TTg (“Decision 768”), Vietnam’s total technical potential for different types of renewable energy is as follows:

• 221,000 MW for onshore;
• 600,000 MW for offshore wind; and
• 963,000 MW for solar power, which includes:
  • Ground-mounted solar potential of approximately 837,400 MW;
  • Water-based solar potential of approximately 77,400 MW; and
  • Rooftop solar potential of approximately 48,200 MW.

As of 2025, Vietnam’s total installed solar energy capacity reached 16000 MW, while the total installed capacity of onshore wind reached 8,000 MW.

In Decision 768, the country outlines a range of renewable energy targets, including:

• Increasing onshore wind capacity to 21,880 MW by 2030;
• Increasing offshore wind capacity to 6,000 MW and to between 70,000 MW and 91,500 MW by 2050; and
• Increasing the total capacity of solar power sources to 12,836 MW by 2030, and to between 168,594 MW and 189,294 MW by 2050.

Inter-regional renewable energy hubs and industrial park integration

In addition to the renewable energy targets, Decision 768 aims for the construction of two “inter-regional renewable energy industrial and service centers” by 2030, to be established in areas with high potential, such as Northern Vietnam, South Central Vietnam, and Southern Vietnam. Key features of these centers include:

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• Large-scale renewable power generation, with each center hosting power plants with a capacity of 2,000–4,000 MW, primarily based on offshore wind energy.
• Integrated renewable energy industrial ecosystems, including factories producing renewable energy equipment and new energy technologies.
• Supporting industries and services, covering the manufacturing of equipment and transport means, construction and installation services for renewable energy projects, and related supply chains.
• Green and low-carbon industrial parks, designed to cluster renewable energy users, manufacturers, and service providers.
• Research, development, and training facilities, aimed at building domestic technical capacity and a skilled workforce for the renewable energy sector.

Current landscape: On-site renewables in Vietnam’s industrial parks

One of the most promising areas for renewable energy development within industrial parks is the adoption of rooftop solar. This solution enables faster, easier adoption of renewables by companies, as they can develop their own decentralized internal grids and do not need to rely on slower, more incremental increases in renewables within the grid’s overall energy mix.

A prime example of this is the LEGO Group, which in April 2025 inaugurated its most environmentally friendly manufacturing facility to date, according to the company. It aima to run on 100 percent renewable energy by 2026, partly through the power generated from its 12,400 rooftop solar panels. The company also signed an agreement with Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) for an energy center on adjacent land, which the company says will house the first battery storage solution of its scale in Vietnam and will be operational by the end of 2025.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT), the total rooftop power capacity in industrial parks exceeded 3,200 MWp between 2024 and 2025, with around 25 percent of the systems integrating battery energy storage systems (BESS). The MIT estimates that the technical potential of rooftop solar power in industrial parks to be over 40,000 MWp, with the possibility for around 20,000 MWp to be implemented by 2030.

While development is slower due to higher upfront costs and logistical constraints, some industrial parks have also begun to develop their wind power capacity. In 2021, DEEP C, an industrial zone and port infrastructure cluster in Haiphong and Quang Ninh provinces operated by the Belgian company DEEP C Holdings, inaugurated a 100-meter wind turbine to supply 2.3 MW of electricity to its internal power grid.

Meanwhile, VSIP III, an industrial park in Binh Duong which commenced operations in 2024, has built a 50-hectare solar farm within the park, enabling it to use solar power as an alternative to the national grid.

See also: Green Incentives in Vietnam: An Overview for Investors

Circular economy and industrial symbiosis

At the heart of Vietnam’s EIP requirements

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Facilitating seamless market entry and global expansion

Core to the development of Vietnam’s EIPs is the development of a circular economy and industrial symbiosis within the parks. Rather than operating as isolated production sites, industrial parks are increasingly expected to function as integrated ecosystems, where energy, water, and materials are reused and shared to reduce waste, lower costs, and cut emissions.

Industrial symbiosis is a core requirement for an industrial park to be officially recognized as an EIP and thereby qualify for preferential policies. Under Decree 9716, enterprises located within an industrial park must collectively implement at least one industrial symbiosis initiative, while participating firms are required to apply internationally recognized production and environmental management systems, such as relevant ISO standards.

In practice, this means waste, by-products, wastewater, or excess energy from one company must be reused as inputs by another, embedding circularity directly into industrial operations rather than treating it as a peripheral sustainability measure.

Flagship projects and on-the-ground implementation

DEEP C Industrial Zones

Several pilot projects demonstrate how this approach is being translated into practice. In November 2025, with support from the UNDP and the Dutch Embassy, the DEEP C Industrial Zones in Hai Phong launched a pilot on industrial wastewater reuse, establishing a closed-loop system for treating and reusing industrial wastewater. Using advanced nano-membrane filtration and reverse osmosis technology, treated water meets high-quality standards and is reused within the industrial zone for applications such as cooling systems and solar panel cleaning.

Nam Cau Kien Industrial Park

Meanwhile, the Nam Cau Kien Industrial Park in Hai Phong has pursued an ecological model from the earliest stages of development, investing upfront in wastewater treatment, green infrastructure, and symbiotic industrial chains.

The park’s wastewater treatment plant, with a capacity of 2,000 cubic meters per day, reuses up to 25 percent of treated water internally, while green space accounts for more than one-third of the park’s total area.

More notably, Nam Cau Kien operates multiple closed-loop industrial chains, in which steel slag is recycled into construction materials, plastic waste is processed and reused on-site, and electronic circuit boards are dismantled to recover valuable raw materials. These symbiotic relationships reduce disposal costs and transform waste into productive inputs, creating a largely self-contained industrial ecosystem.

Role of international partners in scaling industrial symbiosis

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International development partners have also played a key role in scaling up industrial symbiosis across Vietnam. Between 2020 and 2023, programmes supported by SECO, UNIDO, and the MPI assisted industrial parks in Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, and Dong Nai in their transition towards EIPs, while developing business cases for industrial symbiosis in Da Nang and Can Tho.

These interventions focus on improving resource productivity through energy efficiency, renewable energy use, advanced water and wastewater technologies, and material recovery systems.

In Hoa Khanh Industrial Park, for example, cleaner production measures delivered significant savings in energy, water and waste, while pilot symbiosis projects, such as the reuse of biogas from a brewery’s wastewater treatment plant by a nearby energy company, demonstrated both environmental and commercial viability.

I-RECs and green certification

I-RECs as an interim tool for corporate decarbonization

Industrial parks in Vietnam are also increasingly assisting tenant companies in obtaining International Renewable Energy Certificates (I-RECs) to encourage the uptake of renewable energy and support corporate decarbonization commitments. I-RECs, which are internationally recognized certificates that verify the generation of one megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity from a renewable energy source, are becoming an important interim tool for export-oriented manufacturers seeking to meet global ESG and supply chain disclosure requirements.

Some industrial parks are beginning to play an active facilitation role. According to DEEP C’s 2024 sustainability report:

• 5,821 I-RECs were issued in 2024 based on renewable electricity generated in 2023.
• Of this total, 3,378 I-RECs were issued from solar power and 2,443 I-RECs from wind power.
• For renewable electricity generated in 2024, DEEP C expects to issue approximately 5,730 I-RECs, broadly in line with the previous year’s volume.

By aggregating on-site and affiliated renewable generation and managing certification processes, such parks lower administrative barriers for tenants and accelerate the adoption of clean energy within industrial zones.

LEED certification and green industrial buildings

Alongside renewable energy certification, industrial parks are increasingly adopting green building standards certified under LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and other international frameworks. LEED is one of the world’s most widely used green building certification systems, assessing buildings across criteria such as energy and water efficiency, materials, indoor environmental quality, and overall environmental impact.

However, Vietnam’s industrial parks still lag behind in the development of green buildings. According to KTG Industrial, an industrial real estate developer, only around 2 to 3 percent of industrial parks in Vietnam currently qualify as “eco-industrial parks”, while more than 50 percent of buildings across the broader industrial sector meet green building standards. However, demand is evident, with up to 70 percent of FDI companies willing to pay rents 7-10 percent higher for green production spaces, according to KTG Industrial.

Several projects illustrate how this demand is beginning to translate into practice. For example:

• VSIP Bac Ninh 2 (Phase 1): Developed by KTG Industrial, the project has achieved LEED Gold certification, setting a benchmark for large-scale, high-quality industrial developments in Vietnam.
• Prodezi Eco-Industrial Park, Long An: The 400-hectare park has positioned green buildings as one of four core pillars of its development strategy, supported by an investment exceeding US$195 million.

Developers embed green standards into industrial projects

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Structuring compliant manufacturing expansion

Professional industrial developers are also embedding green standards more systematically. KCN Vietnam, an industrial property developer, has committed to aligning new projects with international green building benchmarks to deliver more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly facilities. Its first project developed under these standards is Phase 2 of its project in DEEP C – Hai Phong, which is targeting LEED Silver certification. The project is designed to save up to 25 percent in energy use and reduce water consumption by around 10 percent, while significantly lowering carbon emissions compared to conventional industrial buildings.

In October 2024, KCN Vietnam broke ground on the first phase of a high-quality ready-built warehouse project in Nhon Trach VI Industrial Park – Zone D, Dong Nai Province. Spanning 14.5 hectares with over 97,000 square metres of leasable space, the project is being designed to meet LEED Gold standards, in line with growing demand from global logistics and manufacturing investors for sustainable facilities.

Scheduled for completion in 2025, the development is expected to strengthen Dong Nai’s attractiveness as an FDI destination while reinforcing the broader shift toward greener, more competitive industrial infrastructure in Vietnam.

Scaling Vietnam’s green industrial parks

Vietnam’s industrial parks sit at the center of both the country’s economic growth model and its transition toward a lower-carbon future. As global manufacturers increasingly prioritize ESG compliance, renewable energy access, and circular production models, the greening of industrial parks is no longer a niche policy objective but a core competitiveness issue. The expansion of EIPs, the rising adoption of renewable energy, the growing use of I-RECs, and green building certifications collectively point to a gradual yet tangible shift in how industrial infrastructure is planned and operated.

Government policy has played a central role in this transition. Through Decree 35 and its amendments, Vietnam has moved beyond pilot projects to establish a formal framework for EIPs, supported by preferential policies such as land-rent incentives, access to concessional green finance, eligibility to issue green bonds, and priority status in investment promotion. While meeting EIP criteria requires higher upfront investment and stronger coordination among park developers and tenants, these costs are increasingly offset by improved access to capital, stronger FDI demand, and greater resilience to tightening global climate regulations.

Looking ahead, the challenge will be scaling these models across Vietnam’s rapidly expanding industrial park network. Continued policy clarity, sustained international cooperation, and deeper integration of renewable energy and circular economy practices will be critical to ensuring that Vietnam’s industrial growth remains aligned with its net-zero ambitions and long-term export competitiveness.

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