I always enjoy reading Greenpeace’s Guide to Electronics, as much for the response from injured fans upset at the depiction of their company (Apple) as for an understanding of what companies are doing.
The report is most well-known for its ratings of Apple, and the outcry by brand-loyal Apple fans, grasping at straws in an attempt to justify Apple’s bottom-of-the-rankings position. Because of Apple’s greater media presence, any story about them does well, so of course the Greenpeace reports on Apple got far greater press coverage than their reports on, say, Acer. However, that doesn’t disguise the fact that on the same objective criteria, Apple was at the bottom.
The good news is that Apple responded to the pressure, and made some major improvements. And, as Apple fans will be even more pleased to know, a company now among those holding up the table is Microsoft.
With the focus on games consoles for Xmas, some are comparing Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony. Nintendo fares abysmally, taking the dubious honour of being the first global brand to score zero. Microsoft is marginally better, while Sony does well, and has the current green bragging rights.
The brands doing best overall are Sony-Ericsson and Samsung, while previous leader Nokia takes a steep fall for corporate misbehaviour after random testing by Greenpeace.
For those of us more inclined to buy a laptop than a games console, top of the rankings (after Samsung and Sony) are Dell (now aiming to be the greenest technology company on the planet) and Lenovo.
Tags: greenpeace apple microsoft sony nintendo dell lenovo samsung sony ericsson nokia