Bear Hugs For These Two Classmates, Sustainable Travel Is in the ‘Bag’ Married couple Quinn Cox ’15 and Lilia Karimi ’15 pioneered a simple but ingenious way for hotel guests to donate unwanted items “Bear Hugs” celebrates heartwarming stories of Cornellians on the Hill and around the world. Have an idea? Email us at cornellians@cornell.edu! By Melissa Newcomb As a teenager, Lilia Karimi ’15 held a variety of jobs in hotels, where her duties sometimes included logging the many items that guests had left behind: clothing, books, shoes, water bottles, and more. While some things had been genuinely forgotten and their owners would try to retrieve them, most went unclaimed in the lost-and-found bin. It became apparent to Karimi that many guests had intentionally ditched their excess possessions to travel more lightly—and a lot of the items were ultimately thrown out. At a luxury hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia. Jump ahead to fall semester 2013: Karimi and her future husband, fellow Hotelie Quinn Cox ’15, channeled that wasteful reality into the winning entry in Cornell’s annual student sustainability pitch competition. Now, more than a decade later, the couple has grown their concept into a business, with clients in more than a dozen countries. Their company, Giving Bag, distributes branded, empty cotton bags that hotels place in guest rooms. Cox (left) and Karimi won a 2025 sustainability award from Travel + Leisure. The bags come with instructions explaining that they can be filled with nonperishable items that guests would like to leave behind—and that rather than being discarded, the things will be donated to charity. “We think that when people see the bag, they’re more motivated to leave something they may be done with,” says Cox, the company’s CEO, “like a pair of shoes that can be used by somebody else.” We think that when people see the bag, they’re more motivated to leave something they may be done with, like a pair of shoes that can be used by somebody else. Quinn Cox ’15 Once housekeepers retrieve the filled bags, their contents are collected and eventually transported to a Giving Bag-affiliated charity, or one the hotel designates; meanwhile, the bags are washed and reused. (If an item is too big to fit in the bag, guests can simply put it nearby, or drape the bag over it.) A bag awaits hotel guests in Kyoto, Japan. “A lot of people have the desire to help others—they’re just trying to find ways to do it,” says Cox. “This is a simple option we can provide.” Giving Bag partners with Four Seasons, Alila (a high-end Hyatt brand), and other luxury hotels around the world, including in the U.S., the U.K., France, Switzerland, Japan, Indonesia, India, China, Thailand, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. The couple at Commencement. According to Karimi and Cox, the bags have diverted thousands of pounds of unwanted items from landfills, and benefitted charities like an orphanage in the Maldives, a women’s shelter in Texas, and the Red Cross in various countries. In March 2025, the company won a Travel + Leisure Global Vision Award for Sustainability. But, Karimi says: “We don’t view this as just a sustainability amenity; it’s also a connection with the community. It creates a circular economy, where people are able to use donated goods because others are conscious and don’t just throw them away.” Cox and Karimi, who have a child and live in Mexico City, have been together since their sophomore year, when they met on North Campus. (They each have other professional interests beyond Giving Bag: he works at a software firm, while she founded Luv Collective, a wellness event booking company.) We don’t view this as just a sustainability amenity; it’s also a connection with the community. Lilia Karimi ’15 They secured Giving Bag’s first hotel partner while still undergrads—when the Statler added the amenity to its guestrooms. Says Karimi: “The work we do is a constant reminder that a simple idea can make a big impact.” (All photos provided.) Published May 15, 2025 Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ Other stories You may like Chime In We Need Anthropologists Everywhere—Especially in AI Alumni Bravo to the Big Red Athletics Hall of Fame, Class of 2024! Quizzes & Puzzles Cornellian Crossword: ‘Halls of Fame’