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Sony Ericsson Wins Greenest Electronics Company Award
Posted by Gizmodo US Edition at 12:00 PM on June 30, 2008
Congratulations, Sony Ericsson, for winning what was ultimately a barely challenging competition to become the greenest electronics company around. Our favourite Swedish-Japanese conglomerate rose to the top of Greenpeace's Greener Electronics Guide by exceeding Energy Star requirements, making all its models PVC-free and banning the most harmful chemicals from phones launched since January 2008. Unfortunately, it was valedictorian in a class whose scores have plummeted all around.
In fact, Sony Ericsson was the only company to score more than 5 out of 10 in the Greener Electronics Guide, which judges tech giants on their recycling programs, their use of harmful chemicals and their energy waste. Microsoft and Nintendo were at the very bottom of the guide, with Microsoft's exceedingly low score on climate criteria and Nintendo's Wii being more of a resource hog than one might expect.
The Information and Communications Technology sector accounts for two percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and e-waste becomes a bigger and bigger problem the more we ignore it. While consumers like us can do our part by only buying the gadgets we need (and the greenest ones at that), companies really need to step up and rework internal policies to stop polluting. [Greenpeace]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
chizelord
Posted 1:27 PM 30/6/08
What ever happened to everyone carelessly killing our planet?
...ahh the good ole days...
chizelord
jbhitter24
Posted 12:54 PM 30/6/08
c'mon giz! you guys know better to listen to what the crazy greenpeace hippies tell you!
i'm sure the company's contributions and support of greenpeace and their scare tactics had nothing to do with the rankings.
jbhitter24
robotleawesome
Posted 12:40 PM 30/6/08
Bringing the number of awards or positive things to say about Sony Ericsson to 1.
robotleawesome
Hiphopopotamus
Posted 12:38 PM 30/6/08
@GiantEnemyCrab: Nintendo is last on this list year after year because they refuse to volunteer the information to Greenpeace, who spitefully lists them as Last Place as opposed to Information Not Available.
Hiphopopotamus
Alfonzo
Posted 12:29 PM 30/6/08
I hurts more being a microsoft fanboy.
it hurts most being a wii fanboy.
i'm buying a ps3. even though i don't need it.
Alfonzo
KenjiFinster
Posted 12:29 PM 30/6/08
Does anyone belive the crap Greenpeace is pulling off (as in "We're going to bully everyone until you say what we want you to say")?
Just remember this 2 words: Brent Spar.
KenjiFinster
chorx
Posted 12:28 PM 30/6/08
Power saving is for pussies, whenever I leave the house I open up the fridges and turn everything in the house on just to show the man what I think of his earth saving tactics.
chorx
Moonshadow101
Posted 12:25 PM 30/6/08
I don't understand how you can create a 1-10 scale without anyone being over six. You have nobody to compare them to, except for their twisted imaginary super-company. It's all completely arbitrary.
Moonshadow101
Wess
Posted 12:17 PM 30/6/08
it hurts being an apple fanboy.
Wess
GiantEnemyCrab
Posted 12:12 PM 30/6/08
Wow, Nintendo, gotta step up your game.
GiantEnemyCrab
Metkis
Posted 2:10 PM 30/6/08
Nintendo still stuffing Wiis with radiation cores, I see.
Metkis
Kevin1a
Posted 2:05 PM 30/6/08
I liked sony ericson before I even saw this. I think their phones show a lot of asthetic skill.
Kevin1a
thomusvoo
Posted 1:51 PM 30/6/08
hurry up sony with your damn xperia x1
im craving that crap
thomusvoo
SuperCollider
Posted 1:51 PM 30/6/08
Slow Sundays on Gizmodo actually get me excited for Mondays. Oh, and Fuck Greenpeace!
SuperCollider
thomusvoo
Posted 1:50 PM 30/6/08
im going to buy more microsoft, nintendo and lg products now
thomusvoo
adamator
Posted 1:46 PM 30/6/08
@Moonshadow101: Because it's based on measurable criteria which the companies arguably should be meeting.
It's like a test with a fixed number of right anwers. Even i everyone gets below 50%, that doesn't mean that the highest scorer actually got everything right. There may be a need to "curve" the scores--but, on the other hand, Greenpeace's criteria are generally reasonable steps that a responsible company would take if they considered their environmental impact, so it's not really an excuse that all the other companies are just as bad.
adamator
techtechnonolologic
Posted 2:43 PM 30/6/08
i would like to see what greenpeace has to say about this article:
[www.treehugger.com]
techtechnonolologic
purple_pillows
Posted 2:19 PM 30/6/08
what did nokia do to become so less 'green,' take snake off their phones?
purple_pillows
pizzlepaps
Posted 2:52 PM 30/6/08
@chorx: agreed
who gives a shiiit about being 'green'. just don't be a fatty and you won't breathe out as much co2
pizzlepaps
apeguero
Posted 4:08 PM 30/6/08
Now, why isn't Greenpeace on there?
apeguero
rudeadly
Posted 4:01 PM 30/6/08
DIDNT ANYBODY SEE WALL-E??? JESUS ELECTRONIC CORPORATE AMERICA
rudeadly
ichi1
Posted 3:46 PM 30/6/08
I chop down trees make them in to paper and burn the paper in petrol without even writing on it.
I hate the environment.
ichi1
Arvin Bautista
Posted 4:14 PM 30/6/08
BULLCRAP! Nintendo's always been on the bottom of that list because they don't disclose their environmental practices (not that that's a good thing). The Wii being a resource hog is in complete contradiction to the report that showed it being one TENTH the power sucker that SONY's PS3 was.
Arvin Bautista
jamar0303
Posted 7:45 PM 30/6/08
Ahhh, SE- I just wish I didn't have to mess around with HyperSIMs or things like that to use any of their phones that are actually worth using.
jamar0303
daemonoid
Posted 8:18 PM 30/6/08
I hate greenpeace's tactics here. As reported in the british press, nintendo scored 0 because they didn't answer greenpeace's questionnaire and don't have any environmental info on their website.
First off, i assume some other companies on the list haven't answered so gp have further incomplete info. Secondly, who exactly put gp in charge? i think it's time to call in the french again: [en.wikipedia.org]
daemonoid
robotleawesome
Posted 9:32 PM 30/6/08
call me in 1,000 years when this would have mattered... oh wait, I'll be dead.
robotleawesome
apeguero
Posted 11:00 PM 30/6/08
Again, did Greenpeace rate themselves? Are they the benchmark? How do they compare to the companies on that list? Everytime I see the name Greenpeace the first thing that comes to mind are the rubber boats with outboard motors and the big ship they also have. Those don't run on electric power if I'm not mistaken. Also, do they all walk to work every day? Do their offices run off of solar power? I'm totally uninformed as to how they rate these companies but I would think if they're going to rate other companies then they should be on the top of the list themselves.
apeguero
Exaccus
Posted 4:30 PM 30/6/08
Why would Nintendo disclose thier environmental policies? They must have something to hide that isn't very green.
Exaccus
Eigtball
Posted 1:27 AM 1/7/08
This is greenpeace. Waste of bandwidth.
Eigtball
m-p{3}
Posted 1:19 AM 1/7/08
Nintendo scored 0 because they haven't provided any informations or stats to Greenpeace. They shouldn't have been included at all instead of giving them 0.
m-p{3}
G2GdoB2B
Posted 3:51 AM 1/7/08
Well, I agree greenpeace has some double standards sometimes - it's not mystery that every company has some work to do.
It would be interesting to see the actual balance of their CO2 emissions, since creating cell phones allows people to travel less, be more productive, etc.
Data centers are driving the power plants to their limits, demanding new ones. But ICT also helps a lot with reducing CO2 emission as you can see at [www.internetevolution.com] - telecommuting, teleconference... even mp3 and movie downloads.
G2GdoB2B
ceilingFANBOY
Posted 8:47 AM 1/7/08
Maybe Nintendo not giving Greenpeace any information is an attempt to soften the burden of trying to stock the shelves with Wiis by eliminating the people who care about the environment from the market. Really, how hard is it to give up a little bit of information about their environmental practices?
Are we just considering Sony and Sony Ericsson the same company? It sure looks like Sony was over 5/10 as well.
ceilingFANBOY
lincch01
Posted 9:35 AM 1/7/08
the guide to greener electronics requires companies to submit not only data but also hardware for examination by greenpeace... that is why each company has only a handful of devices tested... this index is not an effective evaluation of company products in general but, rather, an evaluation of a few varied products from each company.
also, you must be kidding when you ask why Greenpeace is not listed... this is their index for greener ELECTRONICS.
furthermore, this is not an arbitrary index... greenpeace evaluates using a specific rubric for grading. that is not to say that it is (or is not) the best grading rubric possible, but that it is by no means arbitrary and demands that companies become some sort of "perfectly green" company.
just my two cents having done a project using the guide to greener electronics in college... and being logical enough to research something before making claims about it.
lincch01