Sony Ericsson Gets Best Marks In Greenpeace Green Electronics Guide

Green Electronic Graphic

Having reported in an earlier journalistic lifetime on many of Hewlett-Packard and other electronics companies' efforts to green their products, it was a bit disappointing to go through the latest Greenpeace Guide To Green Electronics and see no one company can claim to be outstanding in designing, packaging, and safely recycling or disposing of the gadgets we all so rely on. Winner Sony Ericsson, for example, only recycles between 1 and 3% of its offerings.

Wii not green
In fact, tougher e-waste, chemicals and climate change criteria caused many companies to lose ranking on the Greenpeace scale. Sony Ericsson did best, Greenpeace, said, because of leadership on chemical criteria - having banned antimony, beryllium, and phthalates from all models released since January 2008 and making all products PVC free. But Sony Ericsson received poor marks on voluntary take back, use of recycled plastic, and commitment to reduce greenhouse gases. Samsung was best on both recycling TVs and use of recycled plastic (>16%). Apple missed a big opportunity to green up its latest new iPhone, Greenpeace said, and games console makers seem to be altogether lackadaisical on green. Nintendo, the lowest scorer of the group, doesn't even make Wii meet Energy Star requirements. Overall, a read through of the report shows pretty poor performance for the industry that contributes two percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Via ::TU.no (Norwegian)