Trang Tran

  • Fargreen

  • 2014 Climate Fellow

Trang Tran
  • Fargreen

  • 2014 Climate Fellow

bold idea

Prevent social and environmental problems caused by burning rice straw waste in rural Vietnam by instead using the materials to build sustainable, prosperous mushroom farming communities.

organization overview

Fargreen is a social enterprise based in Hanoi, Vietnam, with the mission of building sustainable and prosperous green communities. Fargreen’s flagship product is its premium branded edible mushroom that is locally grown on a rice straw substrate—a medium that is currently considered waste. Fargreen’s production uses no pesticides, fertilizers, or chemicals, and uses potable water to grow the mushrooms. Fargreen offers consumers locally produced and healthy mushroom, rice, vegetable, and honey products from its closed-loop, no-waste production system while making a positive impact on the environment and on the lives of rural farmers. Fargreen is inspired by the cradle-to-cradle approach to build a business model in which no net waste is added in the whole production process. Fargreen sets up a network of farmers who, instead of burning their own rice straw after harvesting, collect the straw produce premium edible mushrooms in an eco-friendly closed-loop system. The leftover after mushroom cultivation is recycled to nourish the soil as bio-fertilizer for rice and vegetable crops, closing the production loop.

Personal Bio

Trang Tran is CEO and founder of Fargreen, a social enterprise based in her home country, Vietnam, that stops the harmful farming practice of open burning of rice straws after harvest and supporting farmers to stay with their land and move out of poverty sustainably. Trang has spent 10 years working for both nonprofit and for-profit development projects in Asia and Central America. In 2015, Fargreen was named one of the six must-know development startups, recommended by DevexImpact, and in 2016 was named among the Rodale 100, the top 100 people, products, and companies impacting the Earth. Trang received her MBA from the Global Social and Sustainable Enterprise program at Colorado State University. She is a 2015 TED Fellow and a 2014 Echoing Green Fellow. Foreign Policy named Trang as one of the top 100 Global Thinkers of 2015.

  • Organization/Fellow Location ?

    Our most recent information as to where the Fellow primarily resides.

    Hanoi, Vietnam

  • Impact Location ?

    Countries or continents that were the primary focus of this Fellow’s work at the time of their Fellowship.

  • Organization Structure ?

    An organization can be structured as a nonprofit, for-profit, or hybrid (a structure that incorporates both nonprofit and for-profit elements).

    Hybrid

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