Credit: Greenpeace
The latest edition of Greenpeace"s Guide to Greener Electronics, released Wednesday, shows that HP leads the rankings with a score of 5.9 out of 10. Nokia, which ranked first place since September 2008, dropped two spots down to third place this year.
The Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics debuted in 2006, and is now in its 17th edition. The guide ranks technology manufacturers on their policies and practices to reduce their impact on the climate, produce greener products, and make their operations more sustainable. The current edition updated the guide"s criteria to place a greater emphasis on energy use, conflict minerals, green products and supply chain energy use. Some companies, such as Nintendo, Motorola, Fujitsu and Microsoft are not included on this guide for various reasons - Microsoft and Nintendo for having limited product portfolios, and Motorola and Fujitsu for their reduction in global market share.
HP moved up three spots since the last guide to take the top spot this time. This is a dramatic improvement for the company, which was once targeted by Greenpeace as one of the worst tech companies for implementing fire retardant materials that were suspected of being hazardous. In 2005, Greenpeace staged a protest against HP and handed out fliers that said "HP: Harmful Products."
Other big gainers were Dell, jumping up eight spots to rank second place, Apple, which moved up five places to place in fourth, and Lenovo, which climbed six places to rank eighth overall. RIM, which made its debut in this latest guide, landed at the bottom of the list in 15th place, as Greenpeace said that the company needs to improve reporting and disclosure of its environmental performance.