Greenpeace Greener Electronics Guide: HP On Top, RIM Comes Last

Greenpeace has published its 17th Guide to Greener Electronics, which has apparently been drawn up according to stricter criteria, notably with more emphasis on renewable energy sources.

The NGO's Guide to Greener Electronics is a ranking of consumer technology manufacturers based on their commitments and efforts to respect and protect the environment.


Among other things, the ranking takes into account the firms' policies and practices, their willingness to communicate green information, the management of environmental impacts throughout product life-cycles (managing energy use and materials from design through to recycling) and efforts to reduce carbon footprints in supply chains.

The November 2011 study places leading PC and printer maker HP in the top spot—a position previously held by Nokia—with a score of 5.9/10. The American manufacturer scored points for its green communication, sustainable operations and environmental management in its supply chain. Dell moved up to second place, and although the firm still needs to make progress in the field of sustainable energy, Greenpeace praised its efforts to help reduce deforestation with a strict paper procurement policy. Dell did, however, score poorly on green products and the firm apparently needs to pay greater attention to its product life-cycles.

Nokia has dropped down to third position, mainly due to energy criteria and a lack of visible effort to use more recyclable and recycled materials. The Finnish firm also doesn't handle product life-cycles as well as it could, according to Greenpeace, even if its does offer excellent recycling schemes. Nokia apparently still needs to improve its green communication too.

Apple has gained five places to take fourth place in the overall ranking for November 2011. Greenpeace outlined several positive steps taken by the Cupertino tech giant, such as the communication of battery life information, the implementation of a recycling policy and the removal of PVC and brominated flame retardants from Apple products. Apple also scored points for signing up to the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition to help improve the traceability of raw materials, principally conflict minerals like coltan.

Behind that come Philips, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Lenovo, Panasonic, Sony, Sharp, Acer, LG and Toshiba.

And last but not least, in fifteenth place, comes BlackBerry maker RIM, which was severely sanctioned for its non-existent strategies for reducing emissions or increasing the use of renewable and clean energy sources.




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