Red glue is an example of an environmental transition in an industry that creates products heavily reliant on the desire to enjoy the outdoors and natural wonders. The shift has increased in recent years both as the general public became more green conscious and as the RV sector looked for ways to meet the recession-induced consumer demand for light-weight units.

"The feeling was, in the industry, that with the high level of visibility of green ... the consumer would like start moving in that direction," said Derald Bontrager, president and chief operating officer of Jayco. "And we felt that as an industry, we needed to more in that direction as well and make our products and processes more friendly to the environment."

Still, the path to green has not been cleared. Questions of what, how, why continue to be asked although they can reap multiple answers, solutions that change over time or more questions. As they undertake the challenging and frustrating effort to become more green, RV manufacturers and suppliers are having to develop new products, engage in new thinking and form new collaborations.

NO GRASS SIDEWALLS

RV maker Jayco started a recycling program in the mid-1980s out of concerns for the planet and for profit. Bontrager explained management did not want the company filling the landfills since it was manufacturing a product meant to bring consumers closer to nature. In addition, the Middlebury business realized a cost savings because it was not only paying less for the fewer loads of debris going to the dump but was also getting paid for the recyclable products it could sell.

In the past couple of years, outside forces have started pushing RV manufacturers to build units that weigh less which, in turn, is nourishing the green movement. Specifically, lighter-weight units will be needed as government regulations increasingly limit the power tow vehicles will have to pull heavy travel trailers and fifth wheels, and as high prices at the pump are making fuel efficiency a bigger factor in the overall cost of the RV, Fore said.

Building materials made from composites are infiltrating the industry since they are durable and lightweight. Fore is introducing another composite material to the market through the establishment of a new company Vixen which will be an affiliate of Dicor Corp. Although it will use hazardous ingredients, the final product will be environmentally friendly and the process to make the composite will use less energy, recycle instead of throw away and release no harmful emissions.

"That doesn't mean we're using grass to make sidewalls," Fore said. "We look at it as an improvement on the current products and processes."

A motorhome made with the Vixen product, the company president said, will be up to 600 pounds lighter and gain up to 1 mile per gallon in fuel efficiency.

SUSTAINABILITY

Mentioning the word "green" will draw a long groan from local businessman Steve Martin.

Green has been so overused that it virtually has no meaning anymore, he said. The preferable term is "sustainability."

A walk through the Genesis Products plant on Almac Court provides many examples of practices that are meant to ease the environmental impact and not impair on future generations' ability to sustain themselves. The steps range from small, like grinding the leftover wood pieces into animal bedding, to big, like the vinyl dispensers. Rolls of thin vinyl usually come in cardboard boxes but because cardboard presents challenges when being recycled, Genesis worked with its vendor to construct wood dispensers, made from scrap at the plant, that can be refilled instead of thrown away.

Both Jon Helmuth, president of Genesis, and Martin are members of The Sustainability Coalition, an organization of business professionals from around Elkhart County who are examining eco-issues with a focus on the RV industry. The pair will tell you, sustainability is not something that can be achieved.

"It's a process," Martin said. "It's a journey, not a destination."

Helmuth described sustainability as taking a holistic view of the product and process, making such inquires as where did the raw materials come from, how was the product made, who made it, how was it distributed. To illustrate his point, Helmuth used a bamboo cutting board. Although the board is viewed by many to be a sustainable product, if it is made by a child laborer in a third world country and imported to the United States on a ship powered by bunker fuel, that product becomes much less green.

The idea stretches to the RV industry as it turns to using composite materials. Wood products, like particle board and chip board, have long been used to build the motorhomes and towables but lately, with concerns over formaldehyde, mold, and harvesting practices, have been gaining a reputation.

Standing in front of tall stacks of board made from Italian Poplar trees, Helmuth described the flexible, bright sheets as "very green." The Poplars were harvested from a tree plantation where they were able to clean the water and air was they grew.

POCKETBOOK ISSUES

Neither the Italian Poplar wood product, the Vixen composite nor most other environmentally-friendly materials are cheap. Financial constraints at the manufacturing level and the retail level are also tempering the pace at which green RVs roll into the marketplace.

"We can, maybe, put the lightest-weight product out there that the market has ever seen," Bontrager said, "but if we're priced completely out of the market and we don't sell any, then that doesn't do anybody any good."

Customers coming onto dealers' lots are interested in green products but with today's economic conditions, they value affordability more, said Debbie Brunoforte, chairperson of the Recreational Vehicle Dealers Association. Price is king but green is important.

RVers already harbor a love and respect for the outdoors and want to protect the environment, said Brunoforte, the owner of Little Dealer Little Prices RV in Arizona, echoing an oft-repeated description of RV owners. Coupled with that, emphasizing the green aspect of RVs and RVing could entice more people to try the lifestyle.

"We think manufacturers are going in the right direction," Brunoforte said. "We need to keep searching for ways to make green products."