06 October 2008
Coal is the most polluting of all fossil fuels and the single greatest threat to the climate. Producing only 23% of Spain’s electricity, it is responsible for 64% of CO2 emissions from the electricity sector. Despite its disastrous effect on the climate, the coal industry is still being subsidised heavily in many countries, including Spain.
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02 October 2008
How transhipping at sea by Philippine fleets facilitates the launder and plunder of West and Central Pacific tuna
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16 September 2008
Apple’s score remains the same, at 4.1 points, but the company drops to 13th position. Apple scores well for putting products on the market whose key components are free of
brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and PVC vinyl plastic. Apple’s latest iPods - the iPod Touch, iPod Nano and iPod Classic, are now free of both PVC and BFRs, along with an
absence of mercury and the use of arsenic-free glass. Many other models have PVC and BFR free components; for example, all new models of iMac and the MacBook Air. While
Apple has now positioned itself amongst the leaders in the electronics industry on phasing out toxic substances, to score more points the complete phase-out of PVC and BFRs in its
iPods should be consistent across all other future product ranges, from Apple iPhone to Apple Macs. Apple also needs to commit to phasing out additional substances with timelines,
improve its policy on chemicals and its reporting on chemicals management.
Apple scores poorly on most e-waste criteria, except for reporting a recycling rate in 2006 of 9.5% as a percentage of sales 7 years ago.
It does only slightly better on energy criteria, failing to score on all criteria except energy efficiency of products, where it scores top marks (doubled) for all desktops computers, portable
PCs and displays complying with Energy Star 4.0 and their iPod and iPhone power adapters not only exceeding the Energy Star standard, but already meeting California’s stricter
efficiency regulations that became effective 1 July 2008.
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16 September 2008
As of the 8th edition of the Guide to Greener Electronics, Greenpeace scores
electronics brands on a tightened set of chemicals and e-waste criteria,
(which include new criteria) and on new energy criteria.
The ranking criteria reflect the demands of the Toxic Tech campaign to
electronics companies. Our two demands are that companies should:
(1) clean up their products by eliminating hazardous substances; and
(2) take-back and recycle their products responsibly once they become
obsolete.
The two issues are connected: the use of harmful chemicals in electronic
products prevents their safe recycling once the products are discarded.
Given the increasing evidence of climate change and the urgency of
addressing this issue, Greenpeace has added new energy criteria to
encourage electronics companies to:
(3) improve their corporate policies and practices with respect to Climate
and Energy
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16 September 2008
Dell drops to 8th place, from 5th in v.8 with middling scores on chemicals and e-waste and energy issues.
The company fails to do better on chemicals because it has yet to put on the market products free of PVC and BFRs or commit to phasing out additional chemicals. On waste, Dell
reports a recycling rate of 12.4%, based on sales 7 years ago.
On energy Dell gets points for reporting that over 42 % of laptops and 57 % of desktops (consumer and client) introduced since 20 July 2007 offer configurations that meet or exceed Energy Star requirements. Dell also scores points for disclosing its GHG emissions from global operations, gaining an extra point for getting the emissions third party verified.
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16 September 2008
Fujitsu Siemens Computers leaps ahead into 3rd place – up from 15th in v.8, with a score of 5.5 points, most of which are gained on the toxic chemical criteria. FSC sells a range
of green-certified products, which use halogen-free flame retarded plastics and halogen-free circuit boards for mainboard and power supply, but there is no information on PVC-free
components. FSC has finally put a timeline of end of 2010 for the complete elimination of PVC and BFRs in all its products.
FSC scores poorly on the e-waste criteria. The only voluntary take-back service offered by FSC is in South Africa. The company reports a recycling rate of 22.5% for Germany based
on past sales, using a 7-year average lifespan of a computer, and over 30% in 13 other countries where its products are sold.
On energy, FSC improves its score, getting top marks for its political support for global cuts of greenhouse gas emissions. It also scores points for reporting that 27% of consumer PCs meet the Energy Star 4 standard, 75% of Business Line professional notebooks and 58% of PCs meet ES4. Of these models, 100% exceed the Energy Star requirements by
26 – 57%.
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16 September 2008
HP remains in 9th place but its score has increased to 4.7 points, gaining points on energy criteria, but losing a point on e-waste. HP scores evenly across all three issues. On
chemicals, although HP provides a timeline for eliminating polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic and all brominated flame retardants (BFRs) by 2009, it is only in computing equipment – not for its entire product portfolio. HP has yet to put on the market products that are entirely free from the worst substances.
On e-waste, HP reports a reuse and recycling rate in 2007 of 15% of relevant sales and some use of recycled plastics. However, HP loses a point for favouring business customers
over individual consumers when providing information on what to do with discarded products.
HP discloses externally verified greenhouse gas emissions from its own operations and one stage of the supply chain: product transportation. It has made a commitment to reduce
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from HP-owned and HP-leased facilities worldwide to 16 percent below 2005 levels by 2010. HP’s overall goal is to reduce the combined energy
consumption and associated GHG emissions of HP operations and products to 25 percent below 2005 levels by 2010. HP gains a point for reporting a renewable energy use of 2%
of global energy consumption and for reporting that more than 87% of HP Notebook PC platforms and 32% of Desktop PC platforms offer Energy Star compliant configurations.
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16 September 2008
LG Electronics soars to 6th position from 16th in v.8, with a score of 4.9, gaining most of its new points on e-waste and energy criteria.
LGE has launched new models of mobile phones with halogen-free housings, packaging and main printed wiring board. It now provides a timeline of 2012 for eliminating phthalates
and antimony – but only in new models of mobile phones.
LGE improves its score on e-waste by starting a take-back programme for its products in the US, including LG, Zenith and GoldStar brands of TVs. It also gains points for reporting its
use of (post-industrial) recycled plastic across all LGE products as 11%, with plans to increase this to 25%, but without a timeline. The company has compiled figures for e-waste
recycling in Europe, Asia and North America and reports a recycling rate in relation to current sales for all regions. Globally, the recycling rate for total IT and telecom equipment is
13.2% and consumer equipment (that includes TVs) is 13.7%.
LGE now scores points on the energy criteria for reporting emissions of GHGs from its factories in Korea and for information that 100% of its chargers exceed the Energy Star standard(v.1.1) by 50%. But data provided for energy efficiency of TVs is for models introduced in 2007, not since the latest Energy Star standard, which came into effect July 2005.
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16 September 2008
Lenovo is in 14th position with a score of 4.1 points, gained mainly on the e-waste criteria. Lenovo now has a take-back programme in the US and reports a recycling rate of 2.16%
of the weight of products shipped in 2007 and 7.74% of the weight of products shipped in 2000. However, much of that data is based on the amount of EU e-waste whose recycling
was financed by Lenovo – by current market share – and may bear no relation to the amount of Lenovo branded e-waste actually recycled.
Lenovo scores well on most of the toxic chemical criteria. However, it has yet to put on the market products free of brominated flame retardants and PVC vinyl plastic and needs to
commit to the phase out of beryllium (including alloys and compounds), antimony and its compounds and all phthalates.
Lenovo discloses greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from global operations in 2007, although these are not externally verified. Lenovo also scores double points on energy efficiency,for having all global models of notebook, desktop and monitor introduced since the effective date of Energy Star 4 meeting the current Energy Star requirements, either in the basic models or as an option. Energy Star compliance is not supplied as standard for all models; for some models, customers can opt for non-Energy Star compliant PCs.
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16 September 2008
Microsoft is in 17th position with a miserable score of 2.2 points, mainly on toxic chemicals criteria. The company provides a timeline of the end of 2010 for eliminating phthalates.
On e-waste, Microsoft scores only on its weak support for Individual Producer Responsibility. On energy, the company only scores for reporting its total carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, from its own operations and although it now has a Climate Change Policy it makes no reference to specific reduction targets for greenhouse gases.
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