For years, ESG occupied an ambiguous position in the global discourse. It was widely acknowledged, frequently discussed, yet often postponed, something to be integrated gradually, when conditions allowed. Today, that ambiguity has vanished. ESG has become a hard requirement for cities, assets, and investments that aim to survive in a rapidly changing world.

According to research by Knight Frank, demand for sustainable real estate is being led decisively by younger generations. A significant majority of respondents in its Next Generation Survey indicated they are willing to pay up to 20 percent more for environmentally friendly products. More importantly, this preference is already translating into action: 63 percent of Millennials have invested in sustainable portfolios, compared with just 35 percent of Baby Boomers.

At the very top of the wealth pyramid, ultra-high-net-worth individuals are setting explicit targets to reduce their personal carbon emissions. Real estate, among the most carbon-intensive and capital-heavy asset classes, is therefore under direct pressure to evolve. At the same time, institutional investors are placing growing emphasis on social outcomes, from workplace wellbeing to broader community health. Assets that fail to meet these expectations increasingly face liquidity risk.

In this context, ESG is now widely understood as a form of future-proofing. Like a massive ship altering course in open waters, the global real estate industry may take time to visibly change direction. But once the new trajectory is set, those that fail to adapt will inevitably be left behind.

The Limits of Retrofitted Sustainability

Yet most cities were never designed for this moment. Built for speed, density, and economic efficiency, they now struggle to reconcile legacy structures with contemporary ESG demands. The prevailing response has been retrofitting, adding green technologies, improving energy efficiency, or introducing pockets of open space where possible.

These measures are necessary, but they reveal a fundamental limitation. ESG, when layered onto an outdated urban model, can only go so far. There is a ceiling to how sustainable a city can become if its foundations were never meant to support that vision.

This raises a more radical question: What if ESG were not an upgrade, but the starting point? What if a city were conceived entirely around environmental balance, social wellbeing, and long-term governance from its very first blueprint?

An answer to that question is emerging, not from Europe or North America, but from Vietnam.

Vinhomes Green Paradise and the Idea of “ESG++ from the Ground Up”

On the southern edge of Ho Chi Minh City, where land meets sea, Vingroup is developing what many observers consider one of the world’s rare examples of a truly next-generation urban model, Vinhomes Green Paradise.

This is not a conventional large-scale real estate project with sustainability features added along the way. It is a city built entirely on the logic of ESG, what some experts have begun to describe as “ESG++ from the ground up”.

The location itself tells the first chapter of that story. Vinhomes Green Paradise is framed by the East Sea and a vast mangrove ecosystem recognized by UNESCO as a World Biosphere Reserve. Spanning more than 75,000 hectares, the Can Gio mangrove forest is one of Southeast Asia’s most important natural assets, functioning as a carbon sink, a biodiversity haven, and a natural coastal defense system.

Rather than pushing against this environment, the project is shaped by it.

Covering 2,870 hectares, Vinhomes Green Paradise maintains a construction density of just 16 percent. The overwhelming majority of land is dedicated to green space and water. A 121-kilometer coastline defines the city’s interface with the sea, while at its heart lies an 800-hectare natural seawater lagoon, an ecological and civic centerpiece rarely seen even among the world’s most ambitious coastal cities.

Here, nature is not an amenity. It is infrastructure.

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A Global Contender for the Cities of the Future

Because of this foundational approach, Vinhomes Green Paradise is increasingly viewed as a strong Asian contender, often described as a “hidden gem”, in global initiatives recognizing future-ready urban developments.

Environmental integration alone, however, does not define the project. Its aspiration extends equally to technology, governance, and human experience.

Designed as a fully integrated smart city, Vinhomes Green Paradise applies IoT, big data, and artificial intelligence across urban management, operations, and environmental monitoring. The objective is not technological spectacle, but a city that operates intelligently, efficiently, and transparently, one that adapts in real time to how people live, move, and interact.

If the environment forms the foundation and technology provides the nervous system, people are unmistakably at the center of Vinhomes Green Paradise.

The project’s social infrastructure is planned as a cohesive ecosystem rather than a collection of isolated amenities. Healthcare is anchored by Vinmec, in collaboration with Cleveland Clinic, bringing international clinical standards into everyday urban life. Education is delivered through Vinschool alongside Brighton College, ensuring continuity from early education to globally benchmarked schooling.

The city’s vision extends across generations. Purpose-built senior living, cultural venues, and public spaces are seamlessly integrated. A seven-hectare waterfront theater establishes a cultural anchor, while sports and recreation are elevated through two championship 18-hole golf courses designed by firms founded by Tiger Woods and Robert Trent Jones. Large-scale entertainment and lifestyle destinations further contribute to a city that is not only sustainable, but vibrant.

According to Arnaud Ginolin, Managing Director of Boston Consulting Group in Vietnam, Vinhomes Green Paradise brings together all the elements required to establish a new global benchmark, one that balances sustainability with dynamism and ESG principles with holistic human experience.

Vietnam’s Statement to the World

In the first nine months of 2025, Vietnam recorded more than 58,000 successful real estate transactions, doubling year on year. In Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, primary residential prices have reached historic highs, compressing opportunities and pushing investors toward new frontiers.

Can Gio has emerged as one of those frontiers. Once viewed as a geographic dead end, the district is now being repositioned as Ho Chi Minh City’s strategic gateway to the sea. Search interest has surged, and capital flows from northern Vietnam are increasingly directed southward.

Infrastructure is the catalyst behind this transformation. Planned high-speed rail will connect central Ho Chi Minh City to Can Gio in just minutes. The long-awaited Can Gio Bridge is set to remove persistent bottlenecks. New interregional road links, port developments, and proximity to Long Thanh International Airport are integrating the area into regional and global trade networks.

What was once peripheral is becoming strategic.

In an era when many of the world’s great cities are struggling to reinvent themselves, Vietnam is offering a different answer: Build differently from the start. Use ESG not as a corrective tool, but as a foundation.

Vinhomes Green Paradise is therefore a statement, about where the next ideas in urban living may come from, and how sustainability, human wellbeing, and long-term value can be aligned rather than traded off.

While the ESG conversation has long been dominated by Western capitals, one of its most ambitious realizations is taking shape in Southeast Asia, guided by willingness to rethink the fundamentals of urban life.

Sources: Knight Frank: The Wealth Report 2025

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