Green electronics products – a reality?

The environmental group assessed electronics products on their use of hazardous chemicals, energy efficiency, the overall product lifecycle (recyclability and upgradeability) as well as their environmental friendliness and innovation. The Sony Vaio TZ11 laptop, Sony Ericsson T650i mobile phone and Sony Ericsson P1i PDA have been rated highest. However, the report also states that none scored over 5/10, which leaves room for improvement. Companies were invited to submit a maximum of 3 (per category) of their most environmentally friendly products. The report also states that many companies did either not respond (t.ex. Acer, Apple, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sharp) or did not submit their products on time. Thirty-seven products were assessed, from fourteen major electronics brands who agreed to provide information for the survey at the end of 2007. Sony Vaio TZ11 notebook, the Sony Ericsson T650i mobile phone and the Sony Ericsson P1i PDA came out top. The best rated desktop came from Dell (Optiplex 755) and HP (dc5750). However, these desktops and other mobile phones, laptops and PDAs could not score above 5/10. The survey also states that many individual innovations were made regarding toxics reduction, energy efficiency, longer lifecycles and recycling. However, still none of the products can be called ‘green’. Key players in the market should work to combine all innovation to produce a true green electronics product, finds the report. A full report of the survey can be found at www.greenpeace.org (PDF)