No green electronics according to guide

Greenpeace has launched the 'Guide to Greener Electronics', which ranks companies on their use of harmful chemicals and electronic waste recycling.

The guide will be used to create demand for toxic-free electronics which can be safely recycled, by informing consumers about company performance on these two issues. The scorecard ranks the 14 top mobile and PC producers and currently all fail to get a green ranking.

"The scorecard will provide a dynamic tool to green the electronics sector by setting off a race to the top. By taking back their discarded products, companies will have incentives to eliminate harmful substances used in their products, since this is the only way they can ensure safe reuse and recycling of electronic waste," said Iza Kruszewska, Greenpeace International toxics campaigner.

Nokia and Dell share the top spot in the ranking. They believe that as producers they should bear individual responsibility for taking back and reusing or recycling their own-brand discarded products.

Third place goes to HP, followed by Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Sony, LG Electronics, Panasonic, Toshiba, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Apple, Acer and Motorola.

Lenovo is in bottom position. It earns points for chemicals management and providing some voluntary product take-back programs, but it needs to do better on all criteria.

Companies have the opportunity to move towards a greener ranking as the guide will be updated every quarter. However, penalty points will be deducted from overall scores if Greenpeace finds a company lying, practising double standards or other corporate misconduct. For now, companies are scored solely on information publicly available on their global websites.