Greenpeace rates Apple, Lenovo higher: Sony drops to least green position

Well well well, it turns out that Apple's new approach of partial openness is starting to pay off for the company as a whole, with Greenpeace increasing Apple's marks for promising to be more green in the future. In Greenpeace's most recent ranking of the technology industry, it put Nokia on top (thanks to its cutting the use of PVC), Dell and Lenovo in second, and Apple at 10th place -- a jump for the latter three companies, who came near bottom last time. At the bottom this time around is Sony, which dropped due to dodgy waste disposal policies: hence, we shall now commence waiting for a pseudo-blog post from Sir. Stringer announcing a "greener Sony." Gotta get on that bandwagon!

[logyk @ Jul 1st 2007 7:46AM]

Personally i couldn't care less if sony was dropping PS3's on baby seals, just make a HDTV that i can afford and you'll be golden in my books.

[dglaz @ Jul 1st 2007 7:55AM]

Classy

[Leonard Nimrod @ Jul 1st 2007 8:17AM]

That was pretty funny.

[loocas @ Jul 1st 2007 8:17AM]

:D logyk, that really cracked me up!

Now, the striking fact is that absolute MOST of the people actually think the very same way but as soon as somebody speaks their mind this way, like you did, they immediatelly start playing all that "politically correct" bullshit and start bashing you!

I give you a positive feedback for the honesty and that you made me laugh :D

I still dissagree with your opinion, thou ;)

[HyperHacker @ Jul 1st 2007 3:11PM]

I wouldn't be surprised if they were, either.

[Jason @ Jul 1st 2007 7:39PM]

Yeah, thanks for being honest... I guess. Sadly, you probably just embodied the viewpoint of the average American. Cold, hard reality just ruined my day.

[Manfred @ Jul 2nd 2007 12:55AM]

Stuff Greenpeace.

I don't need Greenpeace telling me which electronic maker is the bad guy. It's push for donation and self-serving marketing.

Btw, I am not making even one dollar of donation for any Green this and that organization. Had they bother to tell us how much their director takes in remuneration?

[Joe @ Jul 1st 2007 8:16AM]

Who cares? Global Warming is just a natural occurance... think of the ice age etc. - climates change, it's just natural.

Just another excuse for us to be taxed really.

[loocas @ Jul 1st 2007 8:19AM]

So, how really is global warming related to polluting the environment with synthetically manufactured plastics and such?

[Leonard Nimrod @ Jul 1st 2007 7:43PM]

This has nothing to do with global warming.

[Joe @ Jul 1st 2007 8:27AM]

"A Greener Apple"

To me, being greener is in many ways related 'global warming'.

[HyperHacker @ Jul 1st 2007 3:08PM]

The movie "An Inconvenient Truth" provides plenty of examples as to why this common view is a load of crap. Global CO2 levels have gone up and down over time, yes, but now they are rocketing off the charts at record speed. They passed the level of those natural fluctuations - breaking a record at least 650,000 years old - ages ago and continue to blast through the roof.

[John Doe @ Jul 1st 2007 3:19PM]

Joe,

And obviously you are smarter then combined scientific community of the world who says otherwise. I love people like you who make such claims and have NO evidence to back it up. Its pretty much a foregone conclusion that we are the ones causing global warming. And you damn well better hope we are the ones otherwise we are fucked if for some reason the world's scientific community is wrong and its natural. Natural we can't effect and change. Man made we can do something about.

PS- let me guess....Republican right?

[Tori @ Jul 1st 2007 4:30PM]

John Doe,

Now for complete disclosure, although I have my masters in Climatology, I am not professionally active in the global warming debate. With that out of the way..

There is a danger in following a pack mentality when discussing sensitive subjects such as this; everyone has an opinion and few actually have any idea what they're talking about (this includes both sides of the debate).

I wouldn't discount global warming, but, even where I am now, I'm not going to spread the serenade that is man-made global warming. There should always, ALWAYS, be a degree of doubt in your mind, even when it appears most agree with the opinion, that is, unless you personally can confirm the correctness of the statement. You must remember, the greatest minds in history have been wrong, many times in fact. And when there are substantial obstacles preventing possible changes in opinion (including: politics, religion, money), important information can be discounted simply because it doesn't "fall in line" with existing information. This has proven to be a major factor over many years in delaying possible scientific breakthroughs. It’s called dogmatism.

You should realize, what’s “correct” in science today may not be what’s “correct” in science tomorrow. So assuming something is right/wrong when it’s very much being actively discussed in the scientific community can mislead you and others. Also, many scientists (such as myself) really only are knowledgeable about a very limited area of an otherwise vast subject, so it can be difficult, at times, to obtain a clear, wide-scale picture of what’s happening, even for us.

Again, I’m not trying to colnfirm/deny anything; I’m simply trying to refocus your thinking and try to disclose to you to the fact that everyone (whether it right or not) has their own bias going into the process (it can be quite motivating, as long as, again, it doesn’t approach dogmatism). You must know this and factor their finding accordingly with your own skepticism.

I tried to keep this short (because it’s obscenely off topic) and have left references off which may be useful/interesting. Let me know if you are interested.

[Jason @ Jul 1st 2007 7:39PM]

You're absolutely right about the book still being out on whether or not humans are accelerating global warming. However, being environmentally friendly goes far beyond simply carbon emissions.

Our cities are being turned into wastelands by smog and the dying of oxygen-producing vegetation within these cities. We're ruining our water supplies. We're tearing down our forests and consuming non-renewable natural resources. We're wiping out entire species of wildlife.

As human beings, whether we behave like a virus to the planet or not, we still have the imaginative mental ability to recognize patterns in the abstract, then change them. Your simple-minded attitude of sticking your head in the sand is a willful forfeiting of one of the GOOD aspects of humanity.

[nicleT @ Jul 1st 2007 8:44AM]

Hmmm, looks like a OS X brush metal app.

[Josh @ Jul 1st 2007 8:46AM]

The most amazing part of this article is the assumption that Greenpeace is relevant in any way.

[Alex @ Jul 1st 2007 11:06AM]

Yeah, honestly, no one cares what Greenpeace thinks. At all.

[jilie @ Jul 1st 2007 8:59AM]

werent' you saying that greenpeace was lying about apple? now they were right?

[humpty @ Jul 1st 2007 9:07AM]

I promise to be better behaved... can i have a cookie now?

[kevink @ Jul 1st 2007 9:52AM]

wouldn't greener electronics be like... not using electronics?

[ethana2 @ Jul 1st 2007 10:23AM]

Or like, using an os that didn't force you to throw your pc away every 2 years?

I say go with Linux, and do the green thing component-by-component.

[ethana2 @ Jul 1st 2007 10:25AM]

I guess I mean "lifestyle" more than os. Vista is different than xp, but you get the picture.

You know, if compiz fusion can't render at 60 fps on your hardware, it may be able to just do less. And I don't recall needing 128 extra mb of ram just to look purty...

[Rubnoopi @ Jul 1st 2007 10:57AM]

Is that why my Lenovo x61s is taking 4 WEEKS to deliver??!?! Poop.

[L. M. Lloyd @ Jul 1st 2007 11:04AM]

So when Apple is on the bottom of the list, it is a shakedown by annoying environmentalists who don't know what they are talking about, but when Sony is at the bottom of the list, Sony better get on the bandwagon and start working to make their product greener? Pretty much exactly the response I would expect from web writers. I'm sure that if Apple were the greenest company, then we would see article after article saying that it was our duty to the planet to buy Apple product, but Dell and Lenovo, not so much.

[jaysins @ Jul 1st 2007 12:44PM]

Of course an American company isn't going to be number one. We have such relaxed policies compared to the rest of the world, especial Finland where Nokia is located. I really wish we would step up our game.

[Gnu @ Jul 1st 2007 4:42PM]

Except for the fact that half of their board aren't Fins, and a majority of their research and manufacturing are done outside Finland. Where a company's physically headquartered doesn't really count for much these days.

[Mac Junkie @ Jul 1st 2007 1:50PM]

saying Greenpeace is for the environment is like saying Bush is for solar energy...

Greenpeace is run by very wealthy people who take and keep 80% of the donations to live their ridiculous wealthy life styles... Greenpeace is for assholes....

[The_Dude @ Jul 1st 2007 7:15PM]

And I am sure you have some reliable documentation to back up this claim...

[... @ Jul 1st 2007 4:52PM]

Why does anyone even care if global warming is caused by pollution? What harm is there in everyone just going by the assumption that we might be doing it?

Personally I'm a conservative and I think it's BS, but what harm is there in a cleaner environment? And if it is us then all the better that we're trying to be "green".

[Blax @ Jul 1st 2007 4:56PM]

Actually, in the last Greenpeace electronics guide, Lenovo was ranked first. Your article references the first one.

1: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/toxics/electronics/how-the-companies-line-1

2: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/toxics/electronics/how-the-companies-line-2

3: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/toxics/electronics/how-the-companies-line-3

[Bob @ Jul 1st 2007 7:10PM]

Future job posting at Apple.

"We are looking for well educated people to run our environmental impact group. Responsibilities will include dealing with the media on environmental issues.

P.S. we are not trying to save the world. We are just trying to make as much money as possible before this well runs dry. Long haired hippies need not apply."

[kingofwale @ Jul 2nd 2007 9:35AM]

Zune should be the cleanest electronic ever, sitting there in the shelf NOT turned on. ;)