While the political debate continues over global warming, we would like to bring to your attention: Greenpeace’s Green Electronics Guide – which ranks the 14 top manufacturers mobile and PC manufacturers on their global policies and practice on eliminating harmful chemicals and on taking responsibility for their products once they are discarded by consumers.
News Source: Greenpeace’s “Electronics companies race to be greener.” (Special thanks to forum member, Stuge for bringing this piece of news to our attention.)
The public ranking has been successful in spurring many companies to improve, and the second edition, released today, shows good overall industry progress and some major individual improvements in rank.
“We are witnessing a global shift towards greener PCs, with Acer and Lenovo, two major producers, committing to eliminate the use of the most hazardous chemicals from their products range,” said Iza Kruszewska, Greenpeace International toxics campaigner, “Most companies now score above average points on the ranking guide, with only five companies failing to score even the average of five points.”
The ranking is important because the amounts of toxic e-waste is growing every day. It often ends up dumped in the developing world. Reducing the toxic chemicals in products reduces pollution from old products and makes recycling safer, easier and cheaper. Companies with good recycling schemes help ensure that their products don’t end up in the e-waste yards of Africa and Asia.
According to the guide, Sony pulled in 4.7 points on a scale of 10. Note: The guide is updated every 3 months. The current version was published on the 6 December 2006. To download: click here
Sony’s Ranking Explained
Despite having some models without the worst chemicals, Sony has yet to provide timelines for substituting toxic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) for key applications. Sony’s website makes no reference to the precautionary principle. Although Sony is part of the European Recycling Platform which supports Individual Producer Responsibility, Sony’s website provides no explicit support for worldwide Individual Producer Responsibility.
(*diagrams extracted from the Green Electronics Guide, p22-24)
Ranking criteria explained:
The ranking criteria reflect the demands of the Toxic Tech campaign to the electronics companies. Our two demands are that companies should:
1) clean up their products by eliminating hazardous substances; 2) takeback and recycle their products responsibly once they become obsolete.The two issues are connected. The use of harmful chemicals in electronics prevents their safe recycling when the products are discarded. Companies scored marks out of 30 this has then been calculated to a mark out of 10 for simplicity.
Green Movers
Nokia continues to hold the top spot in the ranking, with progressive policies on both its chemicals policy as well as disposal of electronic waste. However, the company is yet to outline clear timelines for phasing out the toxic plastic PVC (vinyl) in all its products.
Motorola has been the fastest mover in the ranking guide. From second worst in the first version of the guide, it has made strong commitments to moved up to fourth place. Lenovo has also made strong policy commitments, to jump from the bottom to 8th place. Fujitsu-Siemens and Acer made substantial progress and are now ranked 3rd and 7th respectively, moving up from their earlier 10th and 12th positions.
Must do better
Apple has made no improvements in its policies and is now bottom of the ranking. While its arch rivals make progress, the world leader in innovation and design is falling further and further behind.
We’d expect an innovative company which takes pride in ‘thinking different’ to be top of the ranking – which was why we launched the Green my Apple campaign which has mobilized Mac fans worldwide to tell Apple how much they love their products: and how badly they want them to be environmentally sound.
LGE, Samsung and Sony have lost points for failing to act on their commitments to take responsibility for their waste; instead, the companies are supporting regulation in the US that would place the responsibility for product recycling on consumers instead of producers.
In September 2006, HP had one point deducted from its overall score when analysis of an HP laptop revealed the presence of a type of toxic chemical that HP claimed it no longer used. HP was quick to respond and investigate. They went public with an explanation on their website, and the penalty point was removed.
By turning the public spotlight on top electronics companies and challenging them to outrank their competition, the guide has succeeded in motivating many companies to improve their policies on chemicals and waste.
But ultimately, companies only respond to issues that matter to their customers.
