Community Is the Foundation: Kevin Kuhlow on Sustainability, Local Jobs, and Social Impact 

Key Takeaways

• Sustainability is about people as much as the environment. Kevin’s work connects environmental solutions with local jobs, fair wages, health insurance, and support for families in the communities where the work happens.
• The right partnerships matter more than simply finding partners. As Piña Cacao grows, Kevin is looking for brands that genuinely share the project’s commitment to sustainability rather than those looking to check a box.
• Community involvement is foundational to lasting work. Kevin’s experience has taught him that projects are stronger when local people are part of the work, not simply recipients of it.
• Purpose can be a steadying force when the work is difficult. For Kevin, seeing the effect of the work on local families helps him stay connected to why he started, even as he navigates the challenges of building something new.

For Kevin Kuhlow, a move to Guatemala changed much more than where he lived. It introduced him to environmental challenges he had never encountered firsthand and, eventually, to a way of working that brings environmental sustainability and community wellbeing together.

His path from finance and real estate in Iowa to tackling plastic pollution and developing textiles from pineapple waste was anything but planned. But across that journey, one lesson has become increasingly clear: lasting environmental work has to include the people who call a place home.

From Iowa to Environmental Work in Guatemala

Kevin moved from Iowa to Guatemala in June 2018 after meeting the woman who would become his wife. He arrived with two suitcases and a professional background largely removed from the environmental sector.

Living on Guatemala’s Caribbean coast, however, he began noticing significant amounts of waste washing onto the shoreline. He started asking questions about where it was coming from and what was being done about it.

Eventually, he decided to reach out directly to 4ocean through Facebook Messenger.

That message led to a conversation with the organization, a visit to Guatemala and, ultimately, an opportunity for Kevin to help establish its operations in the country. He spent the next five and a half years working with 4ocean, an experience he says changed how he thought about sustainability.

“I didn’t really have access to sustainability,” Kevin says of his earlier career. “4ocean really opened my eyes to sustainability, social impact. Not only environmental impact, but the social impact that you have while doing the work.”

That distinction would shape what came next.

Finding the Social Impact Within Environmental Work

Kevin and his wife have since launched an NGO focused on environmental work in Guatemala, including beach cleanups and efforts to support sustainable drinking water access in coastal communities.

They have also been developing Piña Cacao, a project that turns pineapple agricultural waste into a more sustainable textile.

The process begins with pineapple growers. Kevin says farmers have traditionally cleared fields before planting new crops by spraying chemicals and burning the remaining plant material. Piña Cacao instead offers to remove some of that material at no cost and bring it back to its facility, where pineapple fibre is extracted.

Waste from that process is converted into natural fertilizer and returned to growers.

But Kevin is quick to point out that the resulting yarn and fabric are only one part of the story.

The project also employs single mothers in the area who need access to income. Kevin and his wife are trying to bring principles from his earlier work into this new project, including paying more than minimum wage and providing health insurance.

For Kevin, those pieces are not separate from sustainability. They are part of what sustainability means.

“Our story is more than just creating yarn and fabric. It’s the why.”

Building Partnerships Around Shared Values

Developing pineapple fibre into yarn and fabric was one of Piña Cacao’s first major technical hurdles. Having reached that milestone, Kevin says the challenge now is exposure and finding the right partners.

That does not mean finding just any company willing to work with them.

Kevin wants to connect with brands that share the project’s approach to sustainability and are prepared to act on those values, rather than simply talk about them.

“We’re not looking to partner with anyone and anyone,” he says. “We want someone that matches our story as well.”

It is a tension many people working in mission-driven organizations will recognize. Growth can create pressure to take whatever opportunity is available, while staying true to the purpose of the work sometimes requires moving more carefully.

Kevin acknowledges that the process can be difficult. His approach right now is fairly simple: wake up, keep working and stay focused on the goal.

Seeing the People Behind the Work

When the challenges of building something new feel particularly heavy, Kevin comes back to the people around him.

“Seeing the jobs that we create and the impact that we have on the families in the area, that really keeps me going,” he says.

During his time with 4ocean, Kevin managed more than 50 full-time employees and says the organization covered their health insurance. He and his wife are carrying some of those same employment principles into their own work.

Their support also extends beyond employment.

Kevin shared that some of the single mothers working with the project have experienced difficult personal circumstances, including abuse. His wife helps connect women with resources available in Guatemala that they may not otherwise know how to access.

It is a reminder that employment does not happen separately from the rest of a person’s life. People arrive at work carrying responsibilities, experiences and challenges with them.

For Kevin, creating a job is only one piece of building an organization that genuinely contributes to its community.

Why Community Connection Has to Come First

Asked how important community is to this work, Kevin does not hesitate.

“It’s huge. I would say it’s the most important thing.”

One of the lessons he took from his years with 4ocean was the importance of employing people locally rather than bringing in outsiders to do work on a community’s behalf.

Kevin is applying that same thinking to Piña Cacao.

“Community is your foundation, essentially,” he says. “If you don’t have that community engagement… knowing that you’re there to help them is huge.”

That relationship also runs both ways.

Kevin describes it as a “win-win,” particularly when people understand that an organization is there to add something to the community rather than extract from it.

For nonprofit professionals, that idea may feel familiar even when the work itself looks very different. Programs, fundraising, advocacy and environmental projects all exist within relationships. The people closest to an issue are not simply beneficiaries of a mission. They are part of the knowledge, trust and community that make the work possible.

Staying Grounded in the Why

Kevin’s journey into environmental and social impact work did not begin with a carefully mapped career plan. It started with moving somewhere new, noticing a problem and asking what he could do about it.

Years later, the questions have become bigger. How can environmental work create economic opportunity? How can agricultural waste become something useful? How can an organization grow without losing sight of its values?

There are no simple answers, especially while building something new.

But Kevin keeps returning to the same place: the people and communities around the work.

For nonprofit professionals navigating their own questions about growth, partnership and sustainability, his experience offers a useful reflection. Sometimes the strongest foundation is not the project itself, but the relationships built around it.