Apple's green policies are rotten, claims Greenpeace

Electronic giants are waking up to the importance of being green according to a quarterly environmental guide by Greenpeace.

The Guide to Greener Electronics, ranks leading mobile and PC manufacturers and awards points for policies such as eliminating harmful chemicals from their products. It also awards points to companies that take recylcling responsibility for their products and to those which report on the amount of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) collected and recycled.

These, according to Zeina Al-Hajj, spokeswoman for Greenpeace, are all factors that many companies have begun to look at since the campaign began in August 2006.

“This quarter's results are extremely positive and show how more and more electronic companies are moving into the green space,” she told Computeractive.

“There has definitely been a big shift and change in the industry since our campaign began with many of the companies taking heed of our advice, as a result many have moved up the environmental guide.”

Evidence of this includes Lenovo, which went from the bottom of the list when the guide was launched to current top. This has been in part down to its efforts to provide global take back and recycling services on all its products. However, it failed to score any points for creating products free of PVC and brominated flame retardants (BFRs), which can cause liver and kidney damage and reproductive abnormalities.

Sony Ericson was also highly commended by the organisation for “going beyond legislation and Greenpeace guidelines”. It has set a target date of 1st January 2008 for eliminating the use of BFRs in two remaining applications.

This, Al-Hajj believes, is “evidence that the company has picked up the chall enge and embraced green”.

However, Apple was criticised by Greempeace as a "big disappointment", having stuck with the same practices over the past two years. It has reportedly failed to show timelines for eliminating PVC and BFRs and performed poorly on product take back and recycling.

Al-Hajj said: “The company has not made any efforts to change any policies and it is a shame. Apple has an excellent reputation for leading the industry with innovative products and could do a lot to encourage other companies if they began to look at their Green policies.”

The report also highlighted the need for some companies to create recycling policies and adhere to them.

Both Sony and LG were penalised for their corporate double standards on waste. Although both of their global web sites state that the producer should be responsible for recycling products, they are part of a coalition that has opposed producer responsibility, and has lobbied for US consumers to pay an advanced recycling fee.

Samsung also lost points because although it provided voluntary product take back of its electronic waste, it only applied to a few countries and a few product groups. Nokia also lost a point for poor reporting on how many discarded mobiles it recycled.

“We expect companies to have consistent global policies and treat all their customers equally,” said Iza Kruszewska, Greenpeace international toxics campaigner

"With this edition of the Guide, we’re seeing some companies move beyond good statements of principle and towards real action, with the roll-out of voluntary take back programs and detailed information being provided to customers."

However, she warned that companies should ensure they progress in step with the market.

Also involved in the ranking were Motorola, Toshiba, Panasonic, Acer, Dell, HP and Fujitsu-Siemens. All companies were notified of their positions by Greenpeace along with suggestions to improve their policies in time for the next ranking in June.