Bisphenol A (BPA) is used to make polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins. It is commonly found in plastic bottles, milk container and canned food linings, 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.

In 2007 As You Sow and Green Century Capital Management launched a campaign to educate companies and investors about the health impacts and financial risks associated with BPA. At that time both industry and politicians paid little to no attention to this issue. Since then:

As You Sow’s activities:

Whole Foods: 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.

General Mills: The first company we engaged with in dialogue is now switching to non-BPA can linings for its popular Muir Glen brand of organic tomatoes – thus becoming the first major company to begin phasing out of BPA can linings.

Publications: As You Sow and Green Century released a report entitled, 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 substitutions, and their public reporting and transparency. The BPA report led to several new shareholder dialogues with Campbell’s Soup, Coca-Cola, Hain Celestial, Heinz and Pepsi.

Coca-Cola BPA Resolution: Those dialogues identified Coca-Cola as an industry laggard on this issue. Consequently, As You Sow, Domini Social Investments, and Trillium Asset Management filed a new shareholder resolution asking Coca-Cola to report on "public policy challenges associated with BPA". The resolution received a 22% vote more than triple the average that other first year resolutions receive. Company Education and Outreach: Our shareholder coalition originally contacted 14 companies raising health concerns regarding their continued use of BPA in food packaging and particularly its use for lining food cans and sports water bottles. We asked the companies if they sell any food products in packages containing BPA, if they had performed leaching studies to determine whether BPA is migrating from the packaging into the food, if they had explored alternatives to BPA, and if they have plans to phase out the use of BPA. Over the last few years our shareholder coalition has contacted more than 30 companies – helping to educate the industry and shift the market demand for non-BPA alternatives.

FDA Comments: As You Sow and other investors wrote the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warning that continued use of BPA in packaging may threaten the shareholder value of food and beverage companies.