Filtered By: Scitech
SciTech

Greenpeace gives 'green mark' to 2 electronics firms


MANILA, Philippines - Only two electronics firms and their affiliates have passed environmental group Greenpeace’s review of company efforts to adopt earth-friendly policies and processes. The two — Japanese electronics giant Sony and Sony Ericsson, its mobile phone joint venture with the Swedish telco — just squeaked past the cutoff, taking second and first spot, respectively, in a list of 18. Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics ranks leading mobile phone, game console, TV and PC manufacturers on the basis of their global policies and practices regarding the elimination of harmful chemicals, taking responsibility for their products once they are discarded by consumers, and their impact on the climate. The criteria conform to what is called the Toxic Tech campaign. The scores were based on public information available on the companies’ websites. Firms found not to be following published policies are deducted penalty points. Sony Ericsson and Sony both scored 5.1 out of 10, with 10 being the highest score and 5.0 the passing mark, but the electronics giant was ranked second given lower scores in the chemicals criteria. Sony Ericsson was said to be the first firm to score almost top marks on the chemicals criteria, with all products free of polyvinyl chloride. It also scored relatively high in the energy criteria because all products meet and exceed the Energy Star standard. The mobile phone manufacturer, however, failed in terms of electronic waste, reporting a low recycling rate of 1%-13%. Sony scored relatively high by supporting individual producer responsibility, providing some voluntary take-back and recycling of the "e-waste" generated by their branded products and reporting a recycling rate of 53%. Its energy score improved via the disclosure of externally-verified greenhouse gas emissions for over 200 sites and reporting on its use of renewable energy. In third and failing to make the grade was telecommunications industry player Nokia which scored a 4.8. It would have been first given an initial grade of 5.8 but had a penalty point deducted for corporate misbehavior regarding its take-back and recycling practice. Nokia’s take-back program as tested, said Greenpeace, showed that staff in India were unaware of the service. Nokia, however, did well on e-waste issues. Its energy score was boosted via the use of renewable sources and a target to increase such utilization. Rounding out the list were: * Samsung, 4th with a score of 4.5; * Dell, Toshiba, Acer, Panasonic, and Motorola in 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th, respectively, with the same score of 4.3; * Hewlett-Packard, 10th with 4.1; * Apple and Sharp, 11th and 12th with a score of 3.9; * Lenovo and Philips, 13th and 14th with 3.7; * Fujitsu Siemens, 15th with 3.7; and * LG, 16th with 3.3 points. Taking the last two spots were Microsoft with only 2.2 points, having done poorly in the chemicals criteria; and gaming industry player Nintendo in 18th with a measly 0.8. Nintendo scored zero in the e-waste criteria, Greenpeace said, and had actually increased its carbon dioxide emissions by 6% last year - due to increased business — despite committing to 2% cuts annually. — BusinessWorld
LOADING CONTENT