On November 27, 2007, Greenpeace released its sixth-quarter Guide to Greener Electronics. This year's evaluation included television manufacturers and rapidly growing portable game console companies for the first time. The results showed that Nintendo was the least environmentally friendly electronics company, while Philips and Microsoft ranked second to last and third to last, respectively.
Sony Ericsson and Samsung both scored 7.7 out of 10, tying for the title of the world's "most environmentally friendly electronics companies".
Greenpeace has been publishing this assessment report since August of last year, updating it quarterly. This is the sixth report. The biggest difference is that, in addition to mobile phone and personal computer companies, four new companies have been added to the assessment, bringing the total number of companies to 18 from 14. The scoring criteria include nine items such as the presence of toxic chemicals in each company's products and the recycling of old products, with a maximum score of ten.
Nintendo, which owns the popular Wii game, has enjoyed a long run of success, but it has also been labeled as the least environmentally friendly electronics company. Green organizations pointed out that Nintendo has not yet given a timetable for stopping the use of toxic substances such as PVC and brominated flame retardants in its products, and its recycling rate of old products is also very low. As a result, Nintendo received zero points, becoming the first company to receive a total score of zero in this survey.
Microsoft ranked 16th out of 18 companies. Although the company has a policy to stop using toxic chemicals, Greenpeace believes that stopping in 2011 is too late. In addition, Microsoft has no automated product recycling program.
Nokia, the leading mobile phone manufacturer, which was previously ranked the most environmentally friendly electronics company in the survey, has fallen significantly to 9th place this time. This is mainly due to Greenpeace's investigation in the Philippines, Thailand, Russia, Argentina, and India, which found that Nokia representatives in these locations were unaware of the company's product takeback programs. Furthermore, Nokia employees in the Philippines, Thailand, and India were unable to correctly inform customers about local recycling points. Greenpeace therefore deemed Nokia's green statements inconsistent with its actions and deducted points from its ranking.
Apple, which ranked last in the last survey, has now risen to 11th place. In addition to releasing information on the chemicals used in its iMacs and iPods, the new iMacs and iPods feature bromine-free casings and circuit boards, and PVC-free internal wiring. Apple CEO Steve Jobs also announced that the company will phase out PVC and brominated flame retardants (BRFs) by the end of 2008, and provided a timeline for phasing out toxic chemicals (such as arsenic and mercury used in LCDs)..
Please refer to the attachment for the full version of Greenpeace's environmental assessment report on 18 major global electronics manufacturers.
– Reference source: Greenpeace International official website, 2007-12-05
For reference only, please refer to the original text.
Other related files can be downloaded:
Guide to Greener Electronics 6th versio
