[Greenpeace]: The biggest names in electronics have just sat their first global exam on their green credentials. Ranked on their use of toxic chemicals and electronic waste (e-waste) policies only Dell and Nokia scraped a barely respectable score while Apple, Motorola and Lenovo flunked the test to finish bottom of the class.
The big surprises to me:
- 11th place (!) Apple which was an industry environmental leader long ago (and a design leader forever) but which seems to have lost the flame (despite a customer base that should be all over this);
- 3rd place HP, which has had a strong Design for Environment program, and a product take-back system designed as a profit center, not a regulatory burden, but which “loses points for failing to provide timelines for the complete elimination of toxic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and all brominated flame retardants (BFRs)”;
- tied-for-first place Dell, which may have come later to these commitments but seems to have applied its legendary systems and implementation brilliance to turning those commitments into results; and
- 8th Toshiba and 9th place Fujitsu, which despite impressively detailed CSR reports still lag at consistently getting the toxics out. (Which calls to mind the analysis we did with SustainAbility a few years ago, asking whether the best CSR reporters are also the best performers. Our findings: not necessarily.)
(I may have more comments after reading the full reports in detail.)