GREEN CENTURY FUNDS
Green Century Balanced Fund
Green Century Equity Fund
Supplement to the Statement of Additional Information Dated September 11, 1995
HISTORY OF THE GREEN CENTURY FUNDS AND
GREEN CENTURY CAPITAL MANAGEMENT
SHAREHOLDER ACTIVISM
While the companies in the portfolios of the Green Century Balanced Fund and the
Index Portfolio must meet Green Century's environmental standards, some still
have room for improvement. In such cases, Green Century may enter into dialogue
with those companies or file a shareholder resolution to initiate improvement.
CERES -- Green Century Capital Management has been actively involved with CERES,
the Coalition of Environmentally Responsible Economies, created in 1989 to spur
corporations to better their environmental behavior. The CERES Principles
establish comprehensive corporate environmental standards and disclosure
requirements. Companies that endorse the Principles back up their pledges with
concrete information, publicly reported in the CERES Report. Green Century
Capital Management's participation in CERES has enabled us to join in
negotiations with various corporations, which have ranged from Aveda and Ben &
Jerry's to General Motors and Sunoco, and help increase the pressure for change.
Green Century Funds President Mindy Lubber also spoke at the May 1993 PepsiCo
annual shareholders meeting in favor of that company's endorsement of the CERES
Principles.
PEPSICO -- Green Century continued the dialogue with PepsiCo in November of
1993, when the Balanced Fund filed a shareholder resolution to spur the
corporation to further improve its environmental programs and limit its active
opposition to environmental protection measures such as recycling campaigns and
efforts to pass state and national Bottle Bill legislation. The vote was held at
the May 1994 annual shareholders meeting at which Green Century President Lubber
made a presentation in support of the resolution. The resolution received 43.8
million votes, equal to 8.45% of the votes cast on the resolution. This was a
strong first showing, sending a message to PepsiCo management about the growing
shareholder concern for the environment.
In 1995, PepsiCo came to the negotiating table with Green Century, apparently
wishing to avoid the negative publicity that another shareholder resolution
involving Pepsi's opposition to the bottle bill could create. The company agreed
to conduct a comprehensive study of its environmental policies and devise a set
of principles designed to guide company-wide action. PepsiCo also agreed to
discontinue the use of disposable shipping containers in favor of plastic shells
that it will reuse. The company also committed to manufacture a new aluminum lid
that will save 25 million pounds of aluminum per year.
In July of 1994, Green Century Capital Management learned that General Mills had
allowed the manufacture and distribution of 50 million boxes of cereal that had
been made from oats treated with an illegal pesticide. Though General Mills
recalled the contaminated cereal, Green Century Capital Management wrote to
General Mills CEO H. Brewster Atwater requesting that the company more closely
monitor its food manufacturing. Mr. Atwater responded by outlining the steps the
company would take to prevent similar mishaps.
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INTEL -- In 1994 the Green Century Balanced Fund joined forces with the Jessie
Smith Noyes Foundation in filing a shareholder resolution that would require
Intel, an electronics producer, to make publicly available information which
would allow public assessment of its facilities' environmental and safety
hazards. The resolution was in response to a report by the Southwest Organizing
Project which states that Intel's Rio Rancho plant in New Mexico would require
amounts of water exceeding local capacity. While the resolution did not pass, it
did move Intel President Andrew Grove to initiate a long sought after dialogue
with Noyes' President Stephen Viederman.
The following year, the Green Century Balanced Fund and Noyes filed another
shareholder resolution with Intel, prompting Intel to revise its Environmental,
Health and Safety Policy to include sharing information on the company's
environmental and safety hazards with the public. Further, Intel agreed that the
"communities" with which it will share information will include all community
groups and not just the elected officials and local advisory panels set up by
Intel to which the company had offered limited information in the past. Are a
result, Noyes, with the support of Green Century and the other co-filers,
withdrew the shareholders resolution. The resolution's proponents and local
community organizations will continue to monitor Intel's implementation of the
new policy.
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION -- In February of 1995, Green Century Funds
President Mindy Lubber corresponded with SEC Commissioner Arthur Levitt to urge
him not to allow the SEC to restrict shareholder activism, and with Senator John
Kerry to urge him to consider the rights of shareholders to file resolutions
when considering two pending nominations to the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
TIME WARNER -- In 1992, Time Warner, Inc. committed to convert Time magazine to
chlorine-free paper. The company has not only not done so as of yet, but has
resisted requests to report on its plans to convert.
In 1995, Green Century Funds President Lubber wrote Time President Reginald
Brack to request that Time convert to chlorine free paper in its publications.
The Green Century Balanced Fund then joined as a co-filer in a shareholder
resolution at Time which asks the Time Board of Directors to report on its plans
to convert to the use of chlorine-free paper. The resolution will be presented
at Time Warner's annual shareholder meeting by Green Century Trustee Wendy
Wendlandt on May 16, 1996.
The date of this supplement is May 10, 1996.
