A phone from Sony-Ericsson, a notebook from Sony and PCs from Dell and Hewlett
Packard came top of their categories in a study of green electronics devices conducted
by Greenpeace. There's little cause for celebration, though, as they only scored
around half marks, leaving plenty of room for improvement.

Greenpeace published the list to demonstrate that some companies can develop
products that do less harm to the environment, and to encourage others to do
likewise. The group is particularly concerned about the dangers posed by the
20 million to 50 million tons of electronic waste it says we produce each year.

"We are building an Eiffel Tower of waste every 70 hours," said Zeina
Al-Hajj, a spokeswoman for the group.

Worse, noone knows what happens to most of that waste: more than 75 percent
of it cannot be traced, according to the environmental lobby group.

"Is it in landfill, or being shipped to China, or sitting in attics? We
really have no idea," she said.

Laden with toxic products including lead, beryllium, PVC, phthalates and brominated
fire retardants, poor handling or storage of this waste can damage the environment
and human health, the group warned.

To reduce the harm done, the group wants manufacturers to reduce the amount
of waste from products, and to make that waste less toxic, by making products
that use less energy, choosing environmentally friendly components and materials,
making them longer-lasting, and designing products that can easily be recycled.

The Greenpeace study "Searching
for green electronics" is a snapshot of some products available on
the market between August and November 2007. The group invited PC and phone
manufacturers to provide information about their most environmentally friendly
notebooks, desktop PCs, mobile phones, PDAs and game consoles. They then evaluated
the products on four criteria: use of toxic chemicals, energy efficiency, recyclability
and marketing.

Of the companies approached, 14 replied, providing information on 37 products.
Some of those contacted, including Acer, Apple, Asus, Microsoft, Nintendo and
Sharp, did not respond, or replied too late. This meant that game consoles did
not figure in the final report.

The replies were scored, and a weighted total calculated. The highest-scoring
device was Sony-Ericsson's T650i phone, with 5.30 out of 10. The other phones
submitted scored between 3.6 and 4.4.

In the laptop category, the Sony Vaio TZ11 led with 5.29 points out of 10.
Other products listed scored between 3.49 and 4.82.

None of the desktop PCs submitted scored more than half marks: front runners
were the Dell Optiplex 755 and the Hewlett-Packard dc5750, with 4.71 points
each.

The Greenpeace is not a consumer guide said Yannick Vicaire, one of its authors,
although it does show the questions that buyers should ask of manufacturers.

The report should be seen as a comment on the devices studied, and not on the
brands as a whole, said Al-Hajj.

IDG News Service

• Email
• Print
• Share
  • Slashdot
  • Digg
  • Stumble
  • Reddit
  • Newsvine