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November 2008 - International — The latest
edition of our Guide to Greener Electronics
has revealed that very few firms are showing
true climate leadership. Despite many green
claims, major companies like Dell, Microsoft,
Lenovo, LG, Samsung and Apple are failing
to support the necessary levels of global
cuts in emissions and make the absolute
cuts in their own emissions that are required
to tackle climate change.
With world governments
discussing a vital global deal on emission
cuts this December in Poznan and concluding
in Copenhagen at the end of 2009, it's time
electronics companies showed climate leadership
in two vital areas now – giving their high
profile support to the levels of global
emissions cuts we need to tackle climate
change and showing it can be done by making
absolute cuts in their own emissions.
Of the 18 market-leading
companies included in the Guide, only Sharp,
Fujitsu Siemens and Philips show full support
for the necessary cuts of 30 percent for
industrial nations by 2020. Only HP and
Philips have made commitments to make substantial
cuts in their own emissions. All the other
companies in the Guide make vague or essentially
meaningless statements about global emissions
reductions and have no plans to make absolute
emissions cuts themselves. With the need
for deep emission cuts becoming ever more
urgent it's vital big companies support
a global deal and take effective measures
now to reduce their overall emissions.
Embed this
The Guide to Greener
Electronics is our way of getting the electronics
industry to take responsibility for the
entire lifecycle of its products. We want
it to face up to the problem of e-waste
and take on the challenge of tackling climate
change.
First launched in August
2006, the Guide ranks the leaders of the
mobile phone, computer, TV and games console
markets according to their policies and
practices on toxic chemicals, recycling
and energy. Since June 2008, the Guide has
ranked companies on five climate and energy
criteria. In this current edition we're
focussing on climate leadership - not only
because the global climate needs it but
because electronics firms have a big role
to play in the low-carbon economy of the
future.
Our Climate and Energy
campaigner Mel Francis sees a missed opportunity:
"It is disappointing that such innovative
and fast-changing companies are moving so
slowly, when they could be turning the regulation
we need on global emissions into a golden
business opportunity."
The low carbon future
To achieve a significant reduction in emissions
we'll need measures such as much more efficient
transport networks, smarter power grids
and home appliances, sweeping improvements
to manufacturing efficiency and buildings
that use far less energy. In all these areas,
electronics are vital in achieving these
improvements.
Taking into account
all criteria in the Guide, Nokia remains
top, Toshiba makes a big improvement to
3rd place and Sharp and Motorola make big
jumps up the ranking. The big PC companies
such as Dell, HP, Apple and Acer drop down.
Dell continues to be overtaken by other
companies, with an unchanged score of 4.7.
Although Apple drops a place, it improves
its overall score slightly to 4.3, with
much better reporting on the carbon footprint
of its products. Apple has also recently
show leadership on removing the worst toxics
substances with new iPods free of toxics
brominated flame retardants and PVC. All
Apple products should be free of these substances
by the end of 2008, which will challenge
other PC makers to follow their lead.
Much green marketing,
more green leadership needed
For several years now many electronics firms
have put a great deal of emphasis on green
claims. To be truly green, electronics companies
must eliminate the worst toxics substance
from their products, offer free global recycling,
have the most efficient products and push
for a low-carbon economy. No company has
yet achieved clear leadership across the
board. Many have made steady progress but
often not in all areas. This edition has
shown Philips to one of the leaders on energy
but still scoring abysmally on e-waste,
and actually still lobbying against progressive
legislation to tackle the e-waste problem.
