Greenpeace slams HP, Lenovo, and Dell in 11th Guide to Greener Electronics

Philips gets a gold star for effort

1 April 2009 7:13 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Greenpeace has slammed HP, Lenovo and Dell in its latest Guide to Greener Electronics chart after it claims the companies broke promises about phasing-out toxic chemicals in their products.

The companies join Microsoft and Nintendo for being some of the worst in the world at practising and preaching "Eco".

But it's not all bad news, Greenpeace has praised Philips and Apple for embracing new greener technologies, with Philips even getting a gold star as it jumps from 15th to 4th place in the list of electronics companies who are cleaning up their act.

The greenest companies around according to the guide are Nokia and Samsung.

According to Greenpeace HP, Lenovo and Dell had promised to eliminate vinyl plastic (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from their products by the end of 2009, however they have since backtracked with Greenpeace reporting that "Now they've told us that they won't make it this year".

The Guide to Greener Electronics, now in its 11th update, shows which electronics companies are investing to meet their commitments to remove toxic substances from their products, tackle climate change, and introduce better recycling and take-back policies.

"When electronics companies pay for the collection (take-back) and recycling of their own products, they have the added incentive to develop cleaner, more recyclable products", Greenpeace said in a statement.

According to Greenpeace, "Despite an overall slump in scores in the toxics categories, companies are starting to improve their scores on energy criteria. IT is a key sector in the fight against climate change and could enable emissions reductions of 15 percent of business-as-usual by 2020".

Several companies are now increasing their use of renewable energy, with Nokia already sourcing a quarter of its electricity use from renewables say the organisation.

Last year saw Greenpeace naming Motorola, Microsoft, Dell, Apple, Lenovo, Samsung, Nintendo and LG Electronics as, "notably lagging behind".