Mighty Earth Ramps Up Campaign to Tackle Deforestation In RV industry
ELKHART, Ind.— Mighty Earth, a global advocacy organization, unveiled six new billboards across northern Indiana’s Elkhart and St. Joseph counties, as part of its ongoing campaign targeting leading RV manufacturers, according to a release. The billboards — featuring an artistic display of RVs ripping through orangutan habitat and the phrase “RVs Shouldn’t Kill Orangutans” — aim to spotlight a core campaign demand: that major RV companies end their use of timber linked to deforestation and the destruction of habitat of critically endangered Bornean orangutans in Indonesia’s rainforests.
“We’ve put these billboards up in the RV capital of the United States to spotlight an uncomfortable truth: an industry that promotes the love of nature is driving its destruction overseas,” Mike Oles, Indiana Director at Mighty Earth, stated in the release. “We’ve shown that the timber used to build RVs is driving the destruction of the rainforest home of critically endangered orangutans in Borneo, pushing them even closer to extinction. The big RV companies such as Thor, Forest River, Winnebago, and Patrick Industries are ignoring this threat, so we’re spelling it out for them, loud and clear, on billboards in their backyards so they can get the message. The RV industry should follow the lead of major plywood retailers like Home Depot and Lowe’s and commit to using Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood.”
According to the release, 85% of the RVs in the United States are manufactured in Elkhart County. The industry has relied on this type of wood, commonly known as meranti, since the 1970s, according to industry insiders. With the meranti hidden from view, RV envelopes are typically made of thin sheets of meranti plywood with fiberglass on either side and padded with insulation. The ceilings and floors can also be made with meranti plywood and covered with other plywood layers or laminates.
The action follows supply chain investigations showing that vast areas of carbon-rich peatland and orangutan habitat have been cleared to make plywood that was shipped to the United States and likely made its way into RVs made by these companies. Indigenous groups and NGOs in Indonesia have worked tirelessly to raise awareness of deforestation and community rights violations.
Mighty Earth is installing billboards at multiple high-visibility locations in the heart of the U.S. RV manufacturing region:
- 51094 Bittersweet Road, Granger, IN
- US-33 East, east of County Road 138, Goshen, IN
- Toll Road, St. Joseph County, east of Portage Avenue, South Bend, IN. Best viewing area is on Portage Avenue, just south of bridge over interstate. Location is about halfway between Exit 72 (South Bend West/US 31/33) and Exit 77 (South Bend/Notre Dame/IN.
- 2510 Middlebury Street, west of Middleton Run Road, Elkhart, IN
- US-20 East, east of SR-15, south side, left-facing, Elkhart, IN
- 2000 North Cassopolis Street, east side, right-facing, Elkhart, IN
About Mighty Earth
Mighty Earth is a global advocacy organization working to defend a living planet. Our goal is to protect half of Earth for Nature and secure a climate that allows life to flourish. We are obsessed with impact and aspire to be the most effective environmental advocacy organization in the world. Our team has achieved transformative change by persuading leading industries to dramatically reduce deforestation and climate pollution throughout their global supply chains in palm oil, rubber, cocoa, and animal feed, while improving livelihoods for Indigenous and local communities across the tropics.
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