Greenpeace Releases Annual Green Electronics Rankings

Greenpeace International has released its annual "Guide to Greener Electronics" where it ranks leading electronics companies on their policies towards toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change. This year, PC makers made up the bottom of the list, Apple floated somewhere in the middle and cell phone makers got the highest marks. Below is the list with each company's score from 1 - 10 (10 being the best) with the brief explanation of the score provided by Greenpeace.

• 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 out 16 new models of a monitor that are almost free of hazardous chemicals and climbed two places from 11 to 9 but still needs 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 - Drops one position to 11th with no change in scores but gets 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 toxic 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 toxic 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.

As you can see, this year PC makers were highly criticized for either backtracking on commitments to remove hazardous chemicals from their products or not producing a policy to do so at all. You can download a PDF of the full scorecard here.
via Greenpeace International

Written by Megan Treacy