Dell, Nokia lead in e-waste management

Greenpeace says Apple, Motorola and Lenovo at the bottom in eco-friendly policy.

Ranked on their use of toxic chemicals and electronic waste (e-waste) policies, only Dell and Nokia managed to garner 7 out of 10 points each, while Apple, Motorola and Lenovo finished at the bottom of the class, according to a recently-released Greenpeace report titled 'Guide to Greener Electronics'.

The third place goes to HP, followed by Sony Ericsson (4th), Samsung (5th), Sony (6th), LG Electronics (7th), Panasonic (8th), Toshiba (9th), Fujitsu Siemens Computers (10th), Apple (11th), Acer (12th) and Motorola (13th).

Lenovo is at the bottom. It earns points for chemicals management and providing some voluntary product take-back programmes, but it needs to do better on all criteria, reasons Greenpeace.

The Greenpeace report aims to clean up the electronics sector and get manufacturers to take responsibility for the full lifecycle of their products, including the e-waste their products generate. It does not rank companies on labour standards, energy use or any other issues.

E-waste has become a sensitive issue, especially in developing countries. India, for instance, annually generates around $1.5 billion worth of e-waste, according to Toxics Link, a Delhi-based non-governmental organisation. Experts say the IT sector in the country is the largest contributor to e-waste (over 30 per cent).

Nokia, according to the Greenpeace report, leads the way on eliminating toxic chemicals, since all its mobiles are free of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) since end-2005 and all new components will be free of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from the start of 2007. Dell has also set ambitious targets for eliminating these harmful substances from their products.

"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," according to Iza Kruszewska, a Greenpeace International toxics campaigner.

"It is disappointing to see Apple ranking so low in the overall guide. They are meant to be the world leaders in design and marketing. They should also be the world leaders in environmental innovation," says Kruszewska.

"Companies have the opportunity to move towards a greener ranking as the guide is updated every quarter. However, penalty points will be deducted from the overall scores, if we find a company lying, practising double standards or other corporate misconduct," he adds.

Reacting to the rankings, a Nokia spokesperson said, "The Greenpeace results are positive evidence about Nokia's environmental activities. Nokia believes that mobile technology can help create a more sustainable future."

Commenting on the rankings, a Motorola spokesperson said, "Our policy is to meet or exceed all applicable environmental, health, safety, legal and other requirements in the countries in which we do business. We believe the evaluation provides an incomplete picture of the company's true environmental performance. We will review the report and its methodology in detail to assess what actions may be appropriate." Lenovo did not comment till the time of going to press.

With an average score of only 4 out of 10, it is clear that the electronics industry has a long way to go before it can make any claims to being a green industry.