ox River Mills Inc. puts its best foot forward on its Web site, promising visitors that “If you are looking for a sock that fits your foot and your lifestyle, is good for the environment, is made in the USA, and is a darn good sock, you have come to the right place.” The Osage, IA-based apparel manufacturer has a verdant history of Green practices that stretches back to the 1970s when it began working with municipal authorities in Osage to reduce its power use.

Now, it recycles more than 450,000 pounds of materials, reducing its annual energy costs by more than 30 percent through water-reclamation and heat-recovery systems. The company even boasts it’s an “international model for Green companies.” Yet exhibiting in its booth — a patchwork of laminates glued together with toxic adhesives; nonrecycled carpets; fabrics such as nylon made from nonrenewable petrochemicals that don’t biodegrade; paint emitting volatile organic compounds (VOCs) associated with liver, kidney, and central-nervous system damage; and hundreds of pieces of foam-core panels it tossed out every year — was a little like a hybrid-car salesman driving a rusty pickup that still runs on leaded gasoline.

	FAST FACT Tractor-trailers spew about .30 pounds of greenhouse gases for every metric ton of freight they transport one mile.

Heading into the 2007 Outdoor Retailer Show Summer Market, Fox River Mills was concerned its eco-unfriendly booth might create a credibility gap. Held twice each year, the Outdoor Retailer Market (ORM) represents the company’s most important shows of the year. In fact, Fox River Mills attends both shows annually, making key contact with approximately 35 percent of its retailers and 70 percent of its regional representatives, while directly generating an estimated 65 percent of its annual revenue from the winter and summer shows.

Green Acres

Fox River Mills knows that ORM is among the most eco-conscious of expositions. Its exhibitors are known for their Green booths, while the show’s Green Steps Program highlights the companies that have made the greatest efforts adopting Green practices in their product and business tactics. Not going Green at the ORM is like ordering veal at a PETA banquet. “The outdoor retail community and Fox River are very aware of Green policies and practices,” says Joel Anderson, Fox River Mills’ branded-division president. “We needed to very clearly communicate that understanding and value system in our presence.”

With close to 40 years of earth-friendly practices under its belt, Fox River Mills wasn’t sure where to begin with its booth. Unlike static buildings, a booth poses unique challenges by its very nature: Many parts are inherently disposable, power sources are mostly out of an exhibitor’s control, and the booth, which can weigh thousands of pounds, has to be shipped over large distances in tractor-trailers spewing about .30 pounds of greenhouse gases for every metric ton (2,240 pounds) they transport one mile. The problem is old, but the solution — going Greener — is still in its trial-and-error phase. So to start shrinking its carbon footprint, Fox River Mills turned to MG Design Inc. “Our goal was to incorporate as many sustainable options as possible,” says Doreen O’Reilly, account executive for the Pleasant Prairie, WI-based MG Design.

Were You Born in a Barn?

After researching Green materials and ideas for a month at Web sites such as www.GreenFloors.com and Green Building Supply, MG Design and Fox River Mills debated using drapes and carpets made of bamboo fiber and cabinets manufactured from fast-growing aspen. But it found these decisions were difficult.

FAST FACT Trans-oceanic shipping accounts for 4.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Bamboo, for example, renews itself five to 10 times as fast as most hardwoods and requires minimal pesticides during its growth. Plus, rugs comprised of bamboo fibers can last up to five times as long as traditional carpeting. On the other hand, nearly all bamboo for flooring is grown in China, Vietnam, or Myanmar, which means it has to be shipped thousands of miles to the U.S. market. And while bamboo is arguably a Greener alternative than plenty of traditional options, many sustainable-building guidelines suggest selecting materials manufactured locally, which they often define as within a 500-mile radius, to minimize the pollution from, for instance, trans-oceanic shipping. According to the United Nation’s International Maritime Organization, such shipping accounts for 4.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions — twice that of the entire aviation industry.

Eventually, MG Design and Fox River Mills settled on a 20-by-30-foot booth design that looked like Old McDonald’s Farm — and was almost as natural as the oink-oink-here venue from the memorable children’s song, too. Set against a 20-by-16-foot barn-red back wall created from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified plywood, four sales stations were positioned in the corners of the booth. Each was framed, corral-like, with the slats made of wood reclaimed from an old exhibit, and colored a weatherworn gray with water-based, low-VOC wood stain. While the slats accounted for 40 percent of the sales stations’ structure, the remaining 60 percent consisted of graphics and cork. In the past, Fox River Mills displayed its socks inside the stations on foam-core boards that would routinely be damaged as the socks were removed, resulting in the company tossing approximately 250 boards a year into the dumpster. Now it switched to a reusable display board, which will save the company the $1,000 it spent on replacing the foam-core boards each year — and avoid adding more waste to the 135 million tons of garbage tossed into the nation’s landfills annually.

The floors and walls of the exhibit were made from bark peeled from cork oak trees. Because the trees are shaved for their cork — the kind used in wine-bottle stoppers — and not cut down, the trees regenerate quickly with a minimal impact on their surrounding environment. In fact, the cork used to construct Fox River Mill’s booth was made from the waste left over after the cork stops are produced.

The visual center of the company’s booth was a stylized silo. Ten feet high, it symbolized the pastoral architecture and grain crops of the Midwest where Fox River Mills socks are fabricated, in part, from cornstarch, which is now used in making eco-friendly substitutes for a variety of products including everything from plastic bags to golf tees. The silo was constructed from rhythm board, a material made entirely from leftover wood pulp, then corrugated into paperboard. First used by cereal magnate Will Keith Kellogg in 1906 to package his corn flakes cereal, rhythm board is durable, recyclable, and completely biodegradable.

Adding to the barnyard ambiance were chairs with tractor-like seats, while all 600 square feet of the space were illuminated with a total of just 2,500 watts worth of lighting — saving about 215 pounds of greenhouse gases compared to the usage in the previous year’s booth.

Like a battery that can be recharged over and over, Fox River Mills plans to reuse portions of the 600-square-foot exhibit after the ORM shows. For the SnowSports Industries America 2009 show in January, for example, it plans on reusing several segments of its existing exhibit.

“The booth can be reused and recycled in multiple ways,” O’Reilly says, “and Fox River Mills will spend less money than it did renting. So, at least in our case, going Green also meant saving green, too.”

Fox River Mills Inc. incorporated a mix of reclaimed wood, rhythm board, and bark peeled from cork oak trees for the silo and main structure of its 20-by-30-foot custom exhibit.