Germany: Greenpeace’s guide to green buying

There is much talk of e-waste these days, but how can a consumer wishing to buy responsibly and greenly find their way around the electronics market? Greenpeace lends a hand by publishing the results of a survey of the main brands of desktop PCs and notebooks, mobile phones, and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), assessing them on their use of hazardous chemicals, energy efficiency, overall product lifecycle (recyclability and upgradeability) and other factors such as the promotion of environmental friendliness and innovation.

The Sony Vaio TZ11 laptop, Sony Ericsson T650i mobile phone and Sony Ericsson P1i PDA came out on top in the first ever survey of greener electronics products. Some products were more advanced than others, but there's definitely room for improvement as none of them scored over 5/10.

How the survey worked
Market leaders were contacted and invited to submit their most environmentally-friendly products currently available. Ads in trade magazines and on websites encouraging other producers to participate were also placed. Each company was able to submit a maximum of three products in each of the product categories.

Thirty-seven products were assessed, from fourteen major electronics brands who agreed to provide information for the survey at the end of 2007. The companies submitted information on their most environmentally-friendly products. 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) but these and other mobile phones, laptops and PDAs didn't score above 5/10.

But not everyone responded
The survey was based on voluntary participation by companies willing to submit their products to Greenpeace?s critical evaluation. Unfortunately, not all the companies that the environmental organisation invited agreed to participate, and in the game consoles category in particular either no submissions were received at all or they came too late to be included. Non-responders included: Acer, Apple, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sharp.

Since submissions closed, several companies have launched products that showcase new environmental innovations. Nokia's Evolve phone uses more recycled plastic and has a highly efficient charger. Apple's Mac Book Air eliminates the use of toxic mercury and arsenic to raise the bar on toxics reduction.

Because the electronics industry is moving fast Greenpeace will be at the world's biggest IT fair – CeBIT in Germany, to check out which companies and products are on the cutting edge of environmental innovation. Green experts will be investigating the facts behind the hype and highlighting the leaders and showing up any superficial green claims.

Plenty of innovations but there is room for change
The survey also reveals that while no individual product could yet lay claim to being truly green, there are plenty of individual innovations by different companies in toxics reduction, energy efficiency, longer lifecycles and recycling. The key to making a comprehensively greener product is combining innovation in each of these areas.

Greenpeace commits to continuing to challenge electronics manufacturers to take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products – from production, through manufacture and to the very end of their products' lives – and to clean up their products by eliminating hazardous substances and replacing harmful ingredients through safer alternatives or design changes while producing energy efficient products.

Manufacturers need to embrace a truly comprehensive approach. Consumers should not have to choose between a toxic free product or an energy-efficient one. They should not need to ask if being recyclable is better than being durable.

When a product offers all those standards and is marketed with consumer-friendly services extending the lifespan as much as possible, then we can say there is a true green electronics product on the market.

More info:
www.greenpeace.org