Potomac Moms Help Save Environment with Reusable Sandwich Bags

Sandwich bags can be product parents frequently use and two Potomac moms are revolutionizing how this small item impacts the environment.

Cris Bourelly and Kirsten Quigley are two of the founders of 3 Green Moms — the company behind Lunchskins, a reusable sandwich bag that comes in a variety of creative and colorful designs.

In 2010, 3 Green Moms saved 120 million plastic bags from landfills and broke $1 million in sales. Patch had the chance to meet with Bourelly and Quigley to talk about the growth of their product, the challenges of growing a green company and their advice for local parents with their own green ideas for children’s products. 

Patch: Lunchskins and 3 Green Moms started with a school fundraiser and awareness of the number of plastic sandwich bags that go into landfills each year. What were the greatest Green challenges you faced as you developed your Lunchskins product?

Quigley
: Getting a nice, consistent product and reliable production to meet demand.

Bourelly: We grappled with “was this product really green?” We’re produced in Pennsylvania and ship our product to customers. We had to get our heads around the greater good.

Quigley
: The end user doesn’t always think that way. We produce Lunchskins in the U.S., so “local” feels right. We had to stay true to our values and often found ourselves saying, “Is this trade-off worth it?” Can we do everything green? Probably not. It’s knowing what your core values are. We’re changing the mindset of a generation of kids.

Patch: Lunchskins were designed with children’s lunches in mind, but I’m guessing that not all of your customers are parents.  Who have been some of your most surprising customers?

Quigley
: The sweet spot is the moms and kids, but our designs give the product mainstream appeal and make Lunchskins appealing to adults. We would never be in the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) without our designs, and the customers at MoMA are very different than our customers for schools. The product has international appeal. We have a vigorous distribution in Australia. Lunchskins are popular there.

Bourelly: The line transcends sandwiches. We have a strong following in the Middle East. How many sandwiches do they eat there?

Quigley
: We’re retraining the way people think. In the U.S. a sustainable lifestyle is something new, but it’s also practical. Many of our customers are buying Lunchskins not for the green aspect, but for the high quality and the value. We’re most proud that we’ve connected people who are not buying for green to have green practices.

Patch: What first inspired an interest in green and the environment for each of you?

Bourelly: A trip cross-country that I did with my friend Jenny – our Creative Director – after we got out of college. In Colorado and Wyoming we were so close to nature. It was a life changing trip where we did a lot of camping and saw such beauty and nature, and I thought about the waste I was generating.

Quigley
: I grew up around here and my family was suburban farmers. I lived sun up to sun down on a weekend farm. In college I got a degree in Conservation and Environmental Health. It was an extension of what I liked to do, and I try to apply that every day. We live a stone’s throw from the C&O Canal and try to make that a refuge.

Patch: You took an idea that started with a Green Lunch Basket for a school fundraiser, and turned it into a successful company. What advice do you have for other moms and dads living in the area who have an idea for a green product or green business?

Bourelly: You have to have a passion for your product if it’s a product-based business. You have to have the faith that it might not take off right away. It goes back to being committed to our mission. We can’t do everything for everyone. You just have to remain committed to your ideal and your mission.

Quigley
: There are any number of roadblocks and you have to find where your core values are. You’ve got to step back and say am I providing a greater good, have I been honest and do I feel it meets the standards of a non-green product? You want to say is this product a good product and then I’ll measure against the green standard.

Bourelly: Make it from top down. We’ve tried to maintain paperless billing systems and we expect our contractors to use the same standards that we apply.