Living in Peace and Wisdom on our Planet

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In the latest ranking of green electronics from Greenpeace, five companies have scored over the halfway mark, showing significant progress in making their products more energy efficient, easily recyclable, and with fewer toxic chemicals.

Nokia moved back into first place with the ninth issue of the report, scoring an even 7 out of 10 points. Nokia had been saddled with a penalty point in the rankings for the last nine months as a result of its poor takeback policies in India. The company's score reflects its rank as the top company for electronics takeback in India, as discovered by Greenpeace India researchers this past summer.

The Guide, which launched in August 2006 and is updated every three months to reflect changes made by companies in manufacturing, performance and takeback of their products. Overall, the researchers look at 15 criteria for each company, five based on the use of toxic chemicals, five based on takeback and recyclability of hardware, and five based on energy efficiency and greenhouse-gas related issues.

Greenpeace cites the Guide as a major factor in recent green moves by companies including Apple – which just last week announced that its new iPods would be free of brominated flame retardants, polyvinyl chloride and mercury. In this issue of the report, Apple scored 4.1, near the bottom but a significant improvement from earlier reports, wherein it scored a zero for its lack of disclosure.

Other high-ranking companies in the survey are Samsung with a score of 5.7 points, and Fujitsu Siemens, which is this round's biggest mover, climbing to third place from 15th back in June 2008, and scoring 5.5 points.

At the bottom of Greenpeace's list are Sharp, scoring 3.1, Microsoft with a 2.2 rating, and Nintendo in last place again with .8 points, showing no progress since the last report.

Full rankings and detailed information about each company's performance on the Guide to Greener Electronics is online at Greenpeace.org. You can download the full report from GreenerComputing.com.