Greenpeace Continues to Search for Green PCs

On Thursday, Greenpeace released its second survey of "greener" consumer electronics, called "Green Electronics ... The Search Continues." Its first such report, "Searching ... for Green Electronics" was released in March of last year.

Apple has been the target of much criticism by Greenpeace in the past, and despite touting the environmental-friendliness of its latest products, it refused to take part in the survey, as did Asus, Microsoft, Nintendo, Palm and Philips.


The survey evaluated the products against four criteria with a total of 100 points available: use of hazardous materials (30), energy efficiency (30), product lifecycle (including recyclability) (3), and innovations / marketing (10). Scores are normalized to be between 1 and 10.

You can read the full report here (.PDF). Highlights of the report categories are as follows:

Desktop PCs

Last year Lenovo's submission was last among the submitted PCs. This year, Lenovo takes first place with its ThinkCentre 58/58p model. However, the score was 5.88 / 10. The Dell Studio Hybrid, which has been trumpeted as very eco-friendly, only finished 3rd, and didn't even receive 5 out of the 10 points.

1. Lenovo ThinkCentre 58/M58p - 5.88
2. Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo E7935 E-Star 4 - 5.73
3. Dell Studio Hybrid - 4.86
4. Hewlett Packard dc7900e USDT - 4.73
5. Acer Veriton M678G - 3.31

Notebooks

Last year's "winner," Sony finished 5th this year, not a good sign in terms of consistency. The MacBook Air, labeled eco-friendly by Apple was, as we said, not submitted.

1. Toshiba Portege R600 - 5.57
2. Hewlett Packard Elitebook 2530p - 5.48
3. Lenovo X300 - 4.68
4. Dell Latitude E-4200 - 4.41
5. Sony VGN-Z11WN/B - 4.20
6. Panasonic CF-W7 - 3.80
7. Acer TravelMate 6293 - 3.44

Mobile Phones

Greenpeace noted that major steps have been made in the use of chemicals in this category, with all but the LG claiming to be PVC-free.

1. Samsung SGH-F268 - 5.45
2. Motorola MOTORAZR V9 - 5.20
3. Nokia 3110 Evolve - 5.00
4. Sony Ericsson C905 - 4.88
5. LG KT520 - 4.61

Smartphones

It would have been great to see the iPhone in this category, but as we said, Apple refused to submit any products.

1. Nokia 6210 Navigator - 5.20
2. Sony Ericsson G900 - 4.80
3. Hewlett Packard iPAQ 910 - 4.20
4. RIM Blackberry Pearl 8130 - 3.50

Computer Monitors

Interesting that computer monitors encompassed the greenest portion of this report, with two of them reaching 6+ points. Of course, being 6 out of 10, it's still not that great.

1. Lenovo L2440x wide - 6.90
2. Fujitsu Siemens SCENICVIEW P22W-5 ECO - 6.33
3. Samsung 2443BW - 5.89
4. LG Electronics W2252TE - 5.74
5. Hewlett Packard L1950g - 5.48
6. Dell E2009W - 5.13
7. Acer V194HQ - 4.29

Televisions

LG had to pull its entry from this category when the product's release was delayed.

1. Sharp LC-52GX5 5.92
2. Sony KDL-32JE1 5.84
3. Panasonic TH-42PZ800U 4.96

Only Sony submitted a console, as Microsoft and Nintendo both refused to submit entries, as we said, so a rating on video consoles was not done.

Greenpeace said the following in a press release:

The electronics industry is heading in the right direction. To stay in the race to a green product, every company needs to put its foot on the accelerator. It’s time to take the progress made with their greenest products and apply that standard across the board to all of its product lines. A few expensive niche products is not enough.

The electronics industry is one of the most innovative industry on the planet. It’s time these companies step up and give the green gadgets we are all looking for.

Since only a limited number of products were submitted, this is hardly a conclusive survey. It's somewhat annoying, as well, that Apple continues to refuse to submit products for these surveys. If their products are as green as they say, and Apple has repeatedly railed at Greenpeace, then why not submit? It leads people to wonder if Apple truly has something to hide.