GreenBiz
Greenpeace International today released the 12th edition of its quarterly Guide to Greener Electronics scorecard, ranking the 17 manufacturers on their achievement of environmental goals.
Nokia once again remained in the top position, with a score of 7.45 points out of a possible 10, while Samsung held on to second place with its score of 7.1. Sony Ericsson moved further up in the rankings, retaining its third-place score but improving that number to 6.5, up from 5.7 in the March 2009 rankings.
The scorecard rates manufacturers on three criteria: reducing the climate impacts of products and operations, responsible recycling and takeback of unwanted electronics, and the elimination of toxic materials from the products themselves.
It’s the issue of toxics that has had the biggest impact on scores this time around, as three companies — Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Lenovo — all lost a point due to their failure to address toxics issues.
Each of those three companies placed toward the bottom of the most recent rankings: Dell with 3.9 points, HP with 3.5, and Lenovo in third-from-last place with 2.5 points.
The three companies were all dinged one point for failing to remove toxics like brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) from their products. Greenpeace held up Apple as an example of a company that has shown how technically feasible it is to make BFR-free and practically PVC-free electronics.
Apple was the target of an ongoing protest from Greenpeace, largely around the company’s lack of reporting on its environmental performance. The campaign ended with an unprecedented public statement from Steve Jobs in 2007 highlighting Apple’s green goals.
Other notable rankings in the latest iteration of the scorecard include Philips’ demotion from fourth place to seventh, with a nudge from Greenpeace for the company to focus on responsible recycling practices, and Nintendo’s maintenance of its last-place ranking, which the company has held since it first landed on the scorecard in November 2007.
Early versions of the ratings awarded points more on energy efficiency and end-of-life issues, while reports from late 2008 focused more heavily on climate-related issues, especially urging manufacturers to step up their emissions-reductions goals.
The full guide can be
downloaded from GreenerComputing.com; below is the full list of companies and scores; the scorecard dashboard is included below as well.
| Ranking |
Company |
Score |
| 1 |
Nokia |
7.45 |
| 2 |
Samsung |
7.1 |
| 3 |
Sony Ericsson |
6.5 |
| 4 |
LG Electronics |
5.7 |
| 5 |
Toshiba |
5.5 |
| 6 |
Motorola |
5.5 |
| 7 |
Philips |
5.3 |
| 8 |
Sharp |
5.3 |
| 9 |
Acer |
4.9 |
| 10 |
Panasonic |
4.9 |
| 11 |
Apple |
4.7 |
| 12 |
Sony |
4.5 |
| 13 |
Dell |
3.9 |
| 14 |
HP |
3.5 |
| 15 |
Microsoft |
2.5 |
| 16 |
Lenovo |
2.50 |
| 17 |
Fujitsu |
2.4 |
| 18 |
Nintendo |
1 |
