GREENEST CELL PHONES…

Mobile phone companies rated "greenest" in Greenpeace study
Damian Koh, October 5, 2009 (CNET Asia)

"At least a handful of "green" handsets were unveiled in the last three quarters. While most of these devices are still concepts or prototypes, their growing numbers compared with previous years point to a rising interest in environmentally friendly solutions.

"Companies we spoke to including Apple, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson weren't able to provide figures on the return on investment for their green initiatives or what percentage this takes up of their overall budgets. But we do have an idea of how the companies stand in a recent report by Greenpeace."

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"In Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics released last month, Nokia was ranked as the greenest company due to the success of its take-back program for used phones as well as providing information to users on what to do with their discarded devices.

"Samsung garnered second position and performed relatively well on all criteria, while Sony Ericsson scored third for its toxic chemical management, let down only by a weak score on waste and recycling issues."

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"Among the key phone-makers, LG's position dived (from 4th to 11th place) after delaying its commitment to remove PVCs and BFRs from all its products including TVs and monitors by end 2010. Now, only mobile phones will be free of these toxic substances from 2010.

"The study, begun in 2006 and updated every few months, ranks electronics companies based on their toxic chemicals and recycling policies, as well as how they deal with electronic waste and climate change…While this gives an estimate scale of how green a company is, it's worth noting that there is still no one agreed standard involving environmental and carbon footprint issues…"