As You Sow: Environmental Health

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Bisphenol A (BPA)

Environmental Enforcement

As You Sow is dialoguing with companies to increase their awareness of the risks complicit in continued BPA use in products and packaging and also asking for improved transparency on this issue. We have worked with food, beverage, and grocery companies, as well as the U.S. government, through shareholder dialogue and for our survey and report on BPA use.

>>Recent media clippings for our BPA initiative

Company and Government Engagement
Over the last few years our shareholder coalition has contacted more than 30 food and beverage companies to dialogue about the risks of using BPA in their packaging and options for finding alternatives and phasing out the use of BPA.

BPA in Receipts

In 2011, As You Sow filed a shareholder resolution with Yum! Brands, owner of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, about transitioning out of cash register receipt paper containing BPA. We withdrew our resolution from Yum! as the brand has, along with grocery giant Whole Foods, ceased exposing its workers and customers to BPA-laden receipts. Read our press release here (PDF).

BPA in Cans

Though an increasing number (25.1%) of the Coca-Cola's shareholders supported our 2011 shareholder resolution on the continued use of BPA in soda cans, the company declines to address the issue. Our 2010 resolution received 22% support, which is more than triple the expected support for a first year resolution. Read more about our engagement with Coca-Cola here.
General Mills was the first company we engaged with in dialogue switched to non-BPA can linings for its popular Muir Glen brand of organic tomatoes, becoming the first major company to begin phasing out of BPA can linings.
As You Sow and other investors wrote the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warning that continued use of BPA in packaging may threaten the shareholder value of food and beverage companies.
As You Sow and Green Century Capital Management’s shareholder resolution and dialogue with Whole Foods resulted its commitment to remove BPA from all their name brand water bottles by the end of 2009.

Publications

As You Sow and Green Century Funds jointly released the 2010 report "Seeking Safer Packaging: Ranking Food Companies on BPA," which graded 20 companies on their use of BPA in their product lines, their efforts at finding alternatives, and their transparency with investors on these subjects. The BPA report led to several new shareholder dialogues with Campbell’s Soup, Coca-Cola, Hain Celestial, Heinz, and Pepsi. The first edition was released in 2009.

Background

Bisphenol A (BPA) is used to make polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins. It is commonly found in plastic bottles, canned food linings, cash register receipt tape, and dental sealants. An increasing body of scientific evidence indicates that BPA is a potent neural, developmental, and reproductive toxicant, with the ability to impact fetal and infant development. Studies have linked exposure to extremely low doses of BPA to increased risk of breast and prostate cancer, impaired immune function, obesity, diabetes, early onset of puberty, hyperactivity, aneuploidy, and other disorders.