Hungry for Lunch? Meet LunchSkins Founders Kirsten Quigley & Cris Bourelly

The plastic lunch baggie. Seems insignificant in the grand green picture, yes? Shockingly, 20 million of the sandwich/snack bags land in U.S. landfills every day—polluting our planet and its waterways.

When outdoor enthusiast, Virginia-based moms Kirsten Quigley and Cris Bourelly heard this staggering statistic and feared a dirty, unsafe future for their children, they started thinking about a solution. In 2008, LunchSkins was born, bearing food-safe, dishwasher-friendly, fabric bags—that happen to be cute and fashionable, too!

Planet Green: How did you get into this line of work?

Kirsten Quigley/Cris Bourelly: The two of us were sitting around the kitchen table in 2008 talking about green ideas and came across the statistic that 20 million plastic baggies are thrown out everyday. We were shocked by the staggering number of single use bags that were thrown into landfills and ended up polluting our streams and waterways. We vowed to create a better, and greener, alternative to the 40-year -old plastic baggie.

PG: What was your "a-ha" moment?

KQ/CB: We talked and talked about what this baggie would look like and feel like and even had Kirsten's aunt sew up early prototypes of a cloth pouch to get us thinking about how it should function. But when we got our hands on our first real prototype from the manufacturer in a color design, then things really took off. Sharing the LunchSkin concept with family and friends confirmed our commitment to move forward.

PG: Who is your green hero?

KQ/CB: To us, a green hero is someone who walks his or her own talk. Green messages and products are everywhere now, and it's easy to talk a big game. It takes a shift in thinking to actually live green. Our heroes are the thousands of people who practice living sustainably everyday—biking to work, consuming local foods and lowering their consumption in general.

PG: What is your ultimate green goal?

KQ/CB: Our goal is to change core values about how we think about waste. Recycling has gained real traction across America. Now we need to think a bit more about our patterns of consumption and really promote a strong ethic of reducing and reusing. LunchSkins and other reusable bag concepts have given people great alternatives to the commonly used plastic bag and made us all more sensitive to reducing waste.

PG: What is your motivation?

KQ/CB: We are most passionate about raising a generation of kids who think that green practices are mainstream. We want to see young people today take it to the next level and think beyond recycling to using fewer resources in all aspects of their lives. If we can contribute one small part by encouraging the use of reusable bags and eliminating plastic, that will give us a reason to smile.

PG: What is most important to you, ecologically speaking?

KQ/CB: We are both avid outdoors people—from digging in the backyard garden to hiking and skiing mountains and paddling streams. We care deeply about protecting the environment and passing on that love and respect for Mother Nature to our children.

PG: What is the most challenging part of your job?

KQ/CB: There are so many challenges.... where do we start? Trouble-shooting technical problems is high up there, as well as making sure a high quality product gets to the customer on time. We are both very detail-oriented people so it is difficult to let go of all the little things.

PG: What is the most rewarding?

KQ/CB: Nothing makes our day more than positive feedback from our customers. We also love the unexpected moments (most recently in a school lunch room) when we can observe how many people are actually using LunchSkins on a regular basis. It's a great feeling to see an idea take hold and bring a colorful, easy solution to the plastic baggie problem.

PG: Of the people you have worked with, who impresses you most?

KQ/CB: We are constantly in awe of our bookkeeper, turned CFO, who has never met a problem she can't solve. She takes a lot of stress off our plate.

PG: What green thing do you do everyday?

KQ/CB: Like most of you all, we recycle and compost what we can, keep the lights off and promote paperless practices in our office. We've also been using the same reusable coffee mugs for trips to our nearby coffee shop for several years.

PG: What do you wish you could do?

KQ/CB: In a perfect world, we would bike to all our meetings and errands. We might even grow an organic garden with veggies that the deer and rabbits wouldn't get to first.

PG: What is your biggest eco-sin?

KQ/CB: That's easy.... having an SUV in the driveway parked next to a Prius. But we feel much better when we pack 6 or 7 kids into the car to drive to soccer games and practices.

PG: If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?

KQ/CB: Globally, we'd love to see a major shift toward alternative energy and move away from our carbon-based sources. Closer to home in the US, we would love to see communities designed with a better network of biking and walking paths to help people reduce their dependence on cars and encourage healthier lifestyles.

PG: What is your best green advice?

KQ/CB: To be green in today's world, we need to learn from our grandparents' "waste not want not" mentality and combine it with innovative green products of today (like LunchSkins).

Change Makers is series of interviews with people famous and obscure who are creating a more sustainable world through their work. Meet more Change Makers here.