Meet Matt Paneitz | Executive Director and Founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Matt Paneitz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Matt, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
In 1992, government leaders around the world received a document endorsed by 1,575 of the world’s most prominent scientists (including 99 of the 196 living Nobel laureates in the sciences) titled ‘World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity. To avoid causing “vast human misery” this document called for immediate action “to stop the ever-increasing environmental degradation that threatens global life support systems on this planet,” through a widespread transformation of human behavior. Data collection, since the 1992 Summit, specific to ozone depletion, freshwater availability, marine life depletion, ocean dead zones, forest loss, biodiversity destruction, climate change, and continued human population growth, led to a 2nd Warning to Humanity in 2017 (Goyman & Martin, 2020).
The 15,371 signatories concluded that “with the exception of stabilizing the stratospheric ozone layer, humanity has failed to make sufficient progress in generally solving these foreseen environmental challenges, and alarmingly, most of them are getting far worse.” As of 2017, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that we have 11 years (and counting) to prevent further irreversible damage to the planet (Goyman & Martin, 2020).
What exactly does “far worse” look like for a country such as Guatemala, one of the most gangland crime-ridden, malnourished, and impoverished countries in the world, when you add extreme and unpredictable weather patterns? More human misery? Without a widespread transformation of human behavior, we must expect an escalation of the vast human misery already present.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Long Way Home has transformed over 25,000 used tires and 100,000 plastic bottles filled with inorganic trash into the 20-building upcycled marvel that is the Hero School campus, located in San Juan Comalapa, Guatemala. To accomplish this feat we united people from all over the world and open-sourced the entire process on lwhomegreen.org. This green building process is now the cornerstone of the education received by the 175 PreK-11th grade students who currently attend our school.

In San Juan Comalapa, Guatemala 57% of the 50,000 Mayan residents live in poverty, 27% live in extreme poverty. Residents lack access to potable water, food, shelter, and quality education. Severe environmental degradation and climate change are exacerbating these challenges. A major shift in these circumstances requires a heroic and collaborative effort. To address these issues Long Way Home was founded in 2004. In 2008, our team of educators, builders, volunteers, and administrators established Hero School to ensure multi-generational systemic change.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
All trips to Guatemala start with a visit to Antigua and a stroll through the cobblestone streets to hand out in the central park. From there we would visit Hero School in San Juan Comalapa about 2 hours away. Comalapa is known as the Florence of the Americas due to the presence of thousands of weavers and painters. After a tour of Hero School and a visit with several of the local artists, we head through the mountains to Lake Atitlan and stay at my favorite cliffside hotel, La Casa del Mundo. The rooms at Casa Del Mundo offer volcano views from the bed but the real attraction is the wood-fired lakeside hot tub under the stars and in the shadow of multiple volcanoes.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to shout out to ECOHAB.org
Ecohab.org is a group of green builders who are dedicated to bringing green building infrastructure to locations around the world that need them most. The Executive Director and lead green builder, Phil Basehart, has 35 years of experience. Phil can build, design, and adapt to most environments.

Website: https://lwhome.org/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lwhome_org/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/long-way-home/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lwhomeorg

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGp4wuyTpyGytkXWSwYX1SA

Image Credits
N/A