Sony-Ericsson phone ranks top in Greenpeace guide

IDG News Service - A phone from Sony Ericsson, a notebook from Sony, and PCs from Dell and Hewlett-Packard were tops in their categories in a study of green electronics devices conducted by Greenpeace International. There's little cause for celebration, though, because their scores still led plenty of room for improvement.

Greenpeace published the list to demonstrate that some companies can develop products that do less harm to the environment than others and to encourage other vendors to do likewise. The organization is particularly concerned about the dangers posed by the 20 million to 50 million tons of electronic waste it says we produce each year.

"We are building an Eiffel Tower of waste every 70 hours," said Zeina Al-Hajj, a spokeswoman for the group.

Worse, no one knows what happens to most of that waste; more than 75% of it can't be traced, according to the environmental lobby group.

"Is it in landfill, or being shipped to China, or sitting in attics? We really have no idea," she said.

Laden with toxic products including lead, beryllium, PVC, phthalates and brominated fire retardants, poor handling or storage of this waste can damage the environment and human health, the group warned.

To reduce the harm done, the group wants manufacturers to reduce the amount of waste from products. Greenpeace also wants them to make that waste less toxic by making products that use less energy, choosing environmentally friendly components and materials, making them longer-lasting, and designing products that can easily be recycled.

The Greenpeace study "Searching for Green Electronics" is a snapshot of some products available on the market between August and November 2007. The group invited PC and phone manufacturers to provide information about their most environmentally friendly notebooks, desktop PCs, mobile phones, handheld devices and game consoles. They then evaluated the products on four criteria: use of toxic chemicals, energy efficiency, recyclability and marketing.

Of the companies approached, 14 replied, providing information on 37 products. Some of those contacted, including Acer, Apple, Asus, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sharp, did not respond or replied too late. This meant that game consoles did not figure in the final report.

The replies were scored, and a weighted total was calculated. The highest-scoring device was Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB's T650i phone, with a score of 5.30 out of 10. The other phones submitted scored between 3.6 and 4.4.

In the laptop category, the Sony Vaio TZ11 led with 5.29 points out of 10. Other products listed scored between 3.49 and 4.82.

None of the desktop PCs submitted scored more than half marks: front runners were the Dell Optiplex 755 and the Hewlett-Packard dc5750, with 4.71 points each.

The Greenpeace study is not a consumer guide, said Yannick Vicaire, one of its authors, although it does show the questions that buyers should ask of manufacturers.

The report should be seen as a comment on the devices studied, and not on the brands as a whole, said Al-Hajj.