November 28, 2007

Greenpeace Hammers Nintendo’s Environmental Credentials

Greenpeace has skewered Nintendo in the latest edition of its quarterly Guide to Greener Electronics (PDF), which for the first time assesses TVs and the game consoles market.

“Nintendo completely fails to show any environmental credentials and Microsoft and Philips do little better,” the report states.

Whether or not the introduction of game consoles to the report at this time of year, the middle of the holiday shopping season, will have an affect at the cash register is yet to be seen. In September, manufacturers at IFA, Europe’s biggest consumer electronics show, tried to entice consumers with environmentally-friendly product details but consumers were more interested in bigger and brighter screens. But PriceGrabber.com reports that 71 percent of those responding to its recent holiday survey say it is important to them to purchase eco-friendly products this holiday season,

Nintendo is the first company to score 0/10 in the guide. Microsoft did little better, scoring only 2.7. Philips is the lowest TV-maker scoring only 2.

Leading the ranking, Sony Ericsson has taken over number one spot from Nokia while Samsung and Sony have surged ahead to now occupy second and third positions. Sony had finished last in the June rankings

Companies making the most progress with new products without the worst toxic chemicals are now ranking higher than companies who have only committed to remove them in the future. Toshiba has laptops free of toxic chemicals like vinyl plastic (PVC) and has reduced the use of brominated flame retardants (BFRs). Apple, which in the past has been the target of Greenpeace campaigns, sees its score improve slightly due to new iMacs reducing the use of PVC and BFRs. Apple saw its standing begin to improve when it announced its green plan back in May. Most recently, the iPhone took a beating from Greenpeace because of what Greenpeace said it uses hazardous chemicals.

Nokia and Motorola have each had a penalty point deducted after Greenpeace found their claims of global takeback were not being matched by actual practice. Greenpeace says it tested the implementation of product takeback programs in six countries where Motorola, Nokia and Sony Ericsson claim, on their websites, to operate takeback programs. The report says that “Nokia representatives in the Philippines, Thailand, Argentina, Russia and India were not informed about their companies’ own programs and in many cases provided misleading information. Motorola staff in the Philippines, Thailand and India were unable to direct customers to collection points in their respective countries.”

As a result, Nokia falls from top position to ninth and Motorola drops from ninth position to fourteenth.

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