Guide to Greener Electronics

Greenpeace has put together their own quantative study on the most eco-friendly electronic brands using criteria such as 1) use of hazardous materials in the procuct, 2) recyclability of the product and the company’s dedication to recycling, and 3) climate impact of their products and production facilities. What you’ll find is that while some brands exhibit eye-catching design (and a fruity name), they are sorely lacking when put to test on the green scale.

green team

Guide to Greener Electronics: How the Companies Line Up
www.greenpeace.org

We first released our ‘Guide to Greener Electronics’ in August 2006. The guide ranks the 18 top manufacturers of personal computers, mobile phones, TV’s and games consoles according to their policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change.

7.45 Nokia — Scores top marks for leading competitors on toxic phase out.

7.1 Samsung — Holds second position for commitment to reduce absolute emissions.

6.5 Sony Ericsson — Up two places with better product energy efficiency reporting.

5.7 LG Electronics — Up two places but needs to eliminate hazardous chemicals from all products

5.5 Toshiba — Moves up two places with an extra point for promising to cut GHGs

5.5 Motorola — Scores higher and climbs two places because of use of renewable energy

5.3 Philips — Falls from 4th to 7th position and needs to put its commitment to responsible recycling policies into practice

5.3 Sharp — Rises from 9th to joint 7th place with its energy efficient products

4.9 Acer — Put 16 new models of a monitor that are almost free of hazardous chemicals and climbed two places from 11 to 9 but still need to sort out the power cord

4.9 Panasonic — Advance from 12th to 10th place for energy efficiency and pvc free product range but still bad on e waste

4.7 Apple — Drop one position to 11th with no change in scores but get kudos for their green macbook

4.5 Sony — Plunges from 5th to 12th place for inadequate commitments on eliminating hazardous chemicals, e waste policy and cutting GHGs

3.9 Dell — Stays at 13th place because of backtracking on toxics phase out

3.5 HP — Is at 14th position and has no products on the market free of toxic substances

2.5 Microsoft — Loses a point for a poor recycling policy but stays in 15th position

2.5 Lenovo — Down two places with no set timeline for toxics phase out on all products

2.4 Fujitsu — Debuts second from last with no products that are free of hazardous chemicals

1 Nintendo — Stays put in last position with a glimmer of hope with partially pvc free consoles

(see the full report in detail)

Ranking criteria explained

The ranking criteria reflect the demands of the Toxic Tech campaign to the electronics companies. Our three demands are that companies should:

• Clean up their products by eliminating hazardous substances.

• Takeback and recycle their products responsibly once they become obsolete.
• Reduce the climate impacts of their operations and products.
  

The use of harmful chemicals in electronics prevents their safe recycling when the products are discarded. Companies scored marks out of 51 this has then been calculated to a mark out of 10 for simplicity.