Dell, LG, Lenovo suffer criticisms

Activist group Greenpeace has released a new edition of its Guide to Greener Electronics, which ranks major high-tech corporations in terms of their alleged environmental friendliness. Among the companies favored by Greenpeace's press efforts is Apple, which the group notes recently disclosed its carbon emissions. Apple has risen in rankings from 11th to 9th, aided not by the disclosure but by being the "most progressive" computer maker in terms of removing product toxins.

Greenpeace comments that Apple's emissions tracking will only affect the next guide, and that the company must actually act on reducing carbon levels.

Despite holding onto 14th place, HP has been commended for the ProBook 5310m, which is said to be the company's first PC to eliminate PVC and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from everything but the power supply and cabling. Dell and Lenovo are criticized for postponing toxic phase-outs indefinitely, with the latter shifting in rank to second-last, ahead of Nintendo but below Fujitsu. LG has slipped in position from 4th to 11th, as a result of dropping plans to eliminate PVC and BFRs from all products by the end of 2010.

Philips has jumped from 7th to 4th through work on recycling policies; Sony is up from 12th to 8th due to changes in waste and chemical handling. Dominating the guide this period is Nokia, followed by Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

By Electronista Staff