Green Tech

Greenpeace released its latest Guide to Greener Electronics on Wednesday, revealing that promises aren't always kept.

The Greenpeace guide, which started in 2006, ranks the top 17 PC, cell phone, TV, and gaming console manufacturers based on their policies regarding e-waste, climate change, and use of toxic chemicals.

Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Lenovo all dropped in the rankings for failing to live up to public promises to eliminate polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from their computers by the end of 2009, according to Greenpeace.

While 2009 isn't over yet, Greenpeace noted that the companies have reset their clocks. HP (14th place) formally pushed back its phase-out of the chemicals to 2011. Dell (13th place) will fail to meet the 2009 deadline, but has offered no new timeline. Lenovo (down from 14th to 16th place) changed to a 2010 deadline, and Greenpeace claimed it has information that even that deadline will be dropped.

In conjunction with the release, members of the group protested at HP's Beijing facilities last week.

Apple, meanwhile, dropped to 11th place from 9th. Greenpeace gave the Mac maker kudos for its success in making products completely BFR-free and "virtually free of PVC," as well as its green computer campaign. But Apple was scolded for using "unreasonably high threshold limits for BFRs and PVC in products that are allegedly PVC-/BFR-free." As experts have noted, since there is currently no widespread standard for reporting on many environmental and carbon footprint issues, companies have been struggling to determine their own guidelines. Apparently, Greenpeace didn't like the ones it saw Apple using for this category.

Microsoft remained in 15th place, still admonished by Greenpeace for not having a better customer e-waste return policy.

Samsung garnered 2nd for succeeding in producing PVC-free LCD TVs and lowering the overall amount of toxins in its other products by significant amounts. Sony Ericsson moved up from 5th place to 3rd for improving its energy efficiency.

Last place? Still Nintendo, though Greenpeace gave the Wii maker points for switching to PVC-free internal wiring in their gaming consoles.

First place continues to be the province of Nokia, which remains the greenest company in the eyes of Greenpeace, notably for the success of its take-back program for used phones.

While many companies have gotten serious about recycling tech junk, Greenpeace sees e-waste as one of the most serious forms of pollution going unchecked.

The environmental organization claims that e-waste is the fastest growing contributor of municipal waste because of the frequency at which people upgrade to new cell phones, computers, and other electronics. According to its estimates, 20 million to 50 million tonnes of electronics are thrown away each year worldwide.(Others estimate that e-waste will plateau by 2015.)

Swedish-Japanese phone maker Sony Ericsson on Thursday announced targets for reducing CO2 emissions.

The initiative, part of its pre-existing GreenHeart program launched in September 2008, is intended to reduce emissions by 20 percent across internal operations and by 15 percent over the full life cycle of its products by 2015.

Sony Ericsson plans to roll its green strategy into its entire portfolio over time, which is different from focusing on individual green products, such as Nokia's Green 3110 or Motorola's Renew W233.

"We would rather have mainstream models that we sell in large quantities than one particular green model," Jon Mulder, who heads the company's product marketing in North America, told CNET News. "Our customers should first and foremost be able to buy a great phone, and--by the way--find that it's a green phone, too".

One of three new products launching under Sony Ericsson's GreenHeart program is the C901, shown here.

(Credit: Kent German/CNET)

Methods for cutting emissions include providing e-manuals for products to reduce paper usage, and using smaller packaging to decrease the transport-related CO2 footprint, recycled plastics, low-power chargers, and water-based paint that uses local water in the manufacturing process.

Sony Ericsson is launching three products initially: the C901 GreenHeart, a new version of the Cybershot phone C901; Naite, a basic GSM and 3G phone; and the MH300 GreenHeart headset.

Sony Ericsson's approach is pragmatic and low profile, Mulder said. There will be no GreenHeart logo on the hardware, only indications in some of the software.

Sony Ericsson was ranked No. 3 out of 17 manufacturers of electronics in Greenpeace's latest version of its Guide to Greener Electronics from March 2009, earning 5.7 out of 10 maximum points.

The company slipped from its No. 1 position with 5.1 points in June 2008.

In March the same year, Greenpeace awarded Sony Ericsson's T650 the greenest rating among 37 products at the Cebit international electronics fair in Hannover, Germany.

(Credit: Slashphone)

If you're trying to impress people with your carbon footprint, you may not want to flaunt your phone unless it's made by Sony or Sony Ericsson. Those are the only electronics makers that scored above 5/10 in the latest edition of Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics.

The organization tried to explain why the 18 companies that were assessed seemed to rank so low on its scale (PDF). "Electronics giants pay attention to environmental performance on certain issues, while ignoring others that are just as important. Philips, for example, scores well on chemicals and energy criteria, but scores a zero on e-waste since it has no global take-back polices," said Iza Kruszewska, Greenpeace International's toxics campaigner.

Sony Ericsson got high marks in the chemicals category, attributable in no small part to its ban on PVC beginning with this year's products, according to Slashphone. If you do carry a different brand, you might at least be able to disguise it with a case made from recycled tires.