Greenpeace ranks tech companies on green issues

How green is your gadget?

27 August 2006 14:54 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Greenpeace has launched a guide to green electronics naming and shaming electronics companies around the world that aren't doing enough to keep our planet as it is.

Companies where ranked on their use of toxic chemicals and electronic waste policies listed on information publicly available on their global websites.

According to the organisation, only Dell and Nokia scraped a barely respectable score while Apple, Motorola and laptop maker Lenovo finishing bottom of the class.

"The scorecard will provide a dynamic tool to green the electronics sector by setting off a race to the top. By taking back their discarded products, companies will have incentives to eliminate harmful substances used in their products, since this is the only way they can ensure safe reuse and recycling of electronic waste", said Iza Kruszewska, Greenpeace International toxics campaigner.

Nokia leads the way on eliminating toxic chemicals, since the end of 2005 all new models of mobiles are free of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and all new components to be free of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from the start of 2007. Dell has also set ambitious targets for eliminating these harmful substances from their products.

Third place goes to HP, followed by Sony Ericsson (4th), Samsung (5th), Sony (6th), LG Electronics (7th), Panasonic (8th), Toshiba (9th), Fujitsu Siemens Computers (10th), Apple (11th), Acer (12th) and Motorola (13th).

"It is disappointing to see Apple ranking so low in the overall guide. They are meant to be world leaders in design and marketing, they should also be world leaders in environmental innovation", said Kruszewska.

Greenpeace has said that the greener ranking guide will be updated every quarter to encourage companies on the list to improve their position. However the organisation has warned that "penalty points will be deducted from overall scores if we find a company lying, practising double standards or other corporate misconduct".