When (if) you shop for electronics this holiday season, consider the latest Greenpeace environmental ranking
Just in time for the Black Friday retail rush (at least they hope), Greenpeace has released its 10th Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics!
Greenpeace rates major tech gadget vendors on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is the best score the company can rate for environmental policies and 1 is the worst score. The ratings cover not just the company's products, but the company's business practices when it comes to use clean energy and improving the energy efficiency of its facilities.
Nokia maintains its top ranking, with a total score of 6.9, which was actually slightly lower than its previous showing. The company was dinged for its recycling rate, which is only 3 percent to 5 percent, although its voluntary take-back program helped offset that negative.
There were three companies that jumped up substantially since the previous list came out. They were Motorola with a 5.3, which jumped from No. 15 up to No. 7, making major improvements when it came to eliminating hazardous materials and improving energy efficiency; Toshiba earned a 5.9, jumping four spots up into the No. 3 position, mainly because of its work on energy efficiency metrics; and Sharp, which made it into the top 10 with a 4.9.
Dell, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and Microsoft all showed up after Sharp. Microsoft was the second from the bottom of the list, with a score of just 2.9.