Publication - 16 September, 2008
Philips is now in 12th place, scoring 4.3, reduced from its overall score of 5.3 points because it keeps the penalty point incurred in v.8, due to regressive lobbying against theprinciple of Individual Producer Responsibility in a consultation on the revision of the EU WEEE Directive. Philips previously incurred a penalty point for its membership of the ElectronicManufacturers’ Coalition for Responsible Recycling in the US. This coalition has now been dissolved. Philips also scores zero on most of the other e-waste criteria, but gains a pointfor reporting on the recycling rate of the e-waste it collects in Europe.Philips scores well on both toxic chemical and energy issues. On chemicals, Philips has committed to eliminating all phthalates and antimony by December 31 2010. Beryllium andits compounds are already restricted and arsenic is to be phased out of TV glass and other display products from 2008.Philips also increased its score on energy by supporting mandatory cuts in greenhouse gases by industrialised countries of at least 30%. It continues to score the highest marksof all the ranked brands on energy criteria, disclosing externally verified carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, committing to absolute cuts in its operational carbon footprint by 25%by 2012 (using a baseline year of 2007) and sourcing 10% of its electricity in 2007 from renewable sources. Although Philips scores well on energy efficiency, reporting that some71% of all TV models put on the US market after 2005 met the Energy Star standard, these data are only for US models and not all their new models globally. 10% of Philips currentbattery charger models fulfil the Energy Star requirements. These models exceed the technical Energy Star requirements by 5-15%.