Greenpeace’s ‘Guide to Greener Electronics’
Aims to make manufacturers take responsibility for the full life cycle of their products, including the e-waste that their products generate and the energy used by their products and operations.
The Guide ranks 15 leading mobile phone, TV and PC manufacturers on policies and practices to reduce their impact on the climate, produce greener products, and make their operations more sustainable.
The Guide ranks companies under three headings, Energy & Climate, Greener Products and Sustainable Operations. The criteria used to evaluate the companies reflect Greenpeace’s desires that electronics companies:
- Reduce emissions of greenhouse gases with energy efficiency and renewable energy
- Clean up their products by eliminating hazardous substances
- Take-back and recycle their products responsibly once they become obsolete
- Stop the use of unsustainable materials in their products and packaging
HP 5.9/10
Up three places, HP is now the top scoring company - strongest on sustainable operations and energy criteria but could improve on green products criteria.
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Dell 5.1/10
Up eight places, Dell scores best on energy criteria with a strong target to reduce emissions by 40 percent by 2015 but scores poorly on green products.
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Nokia 4.9/10
Down two places, Nokia loses its leadership position to HP and Dell over energy criteria but scores well on green products and sustainable operations.
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Apple 4.6/10
Up five places, Apple is now a joint top scoring company on green products and relatively strong on sustainable operations, but scores poorly on energy.
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Philips 4.5/10
Philips gets a strong score along with Sony for supporting progressive clean energy policy and on energy criteria overall. Down two places.
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Sony Ericsson 4.2/10
Sony Ericsson gets a joint top score on green products and good sustainable operation score but is weak on energy criteria. Down four places.
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Samsung 4.1/10
Down two places, Samsung scores best on sustainable operations but needs to improve on energy criteria, especially on sourcing more green power.
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Lenovo 3.8/10
Up six places, Lenovo scores highest on sustainable operations but needs to set strong goals to reduce carbon emissions and boost renewable energy use.
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Panasonic 3.6/10
Down three places, Panasonic gets one of the highest scores on greener products but scores poorly on energy, and needs to have a clear plan on how it can cut carbon emissions and boost renewable energy use.
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Sony 3.6/10
Down four places, Sony receives a penalty point for lobby against stricter energy efficiency standards in California. However it also received top scores for supporting ambitious climate targets in Europe.
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Sharp 3/10
Sharp supports a new renewable energy law in Japan but scores poor on all sustainable operations criteria. Stays in 11th place.
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Acer 2.9/10
Acer scores poorly compared to major competitors, good on hazardous substance phase out but poor on energy criteria. Stays in 12th place.
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LG Electronics 2.8/10
Up one point, LGE has weak emissions reduction targets and needs to increase renewable energy use.
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Toshiba 2.8/10
Up three places, Toshiba has made some progress on phasing out hazardous substances but needs to improve on energy criteria.
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RIM 1.6/10
New to the Guide, RIM needs to improve reporting and disclosure of its environmental performance compared to other mobile phone makers.
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Criteria:
Criteria on Energy and Climate
The companies are evaluated on:
1. Disclosure of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions
2. Commitment to reduce the company’s own short term and long term GHG
emissions
3. A Clean Energy Plan which includes increasing use of Renewable Energy (RE)
and energy efficiency measures to implement cuts in GHGs
4. Advocacy for a Clean Energy Policy at national and sub-national level
Criteria on Greener Products
These criteria focus on the environmental performance of consumer electronics,
across a number of different issues:
1. Energy efficiency of new models of specified products
2. Products on the market free from hazardous substances
Criteria on Sustainable Operations
These criteria examine how companies implement environmental considerations
during manufacture in their supply chain through to the end-of-life phase of a
product:
1. Reduction of supply chain GHG emissions by major suppliers
2. Policy, practice and advocacy on chemicals management
3. Policy and practice on sustainable sourcing of fibres for paper
4. Policy and practice on avoidance of conflict minerals
5. Producer responsibility for voluntary take-back of e-waste
3. Use of post-consumer recycled plastics in products
4. Product life cycle
Disclaimer: The Guide does not rank companies on labour standards, social responsibility or any other issues, but recognises that these are important in the production and use of electronic products.
See the full report here: www.greenpeace.org
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