Greenpeace, environmental campaign group based out of Netherlands, has a mild rap on the knuckle for all leading electronics manufacturers. In a recently published report (Complete link here and also check docstoc embed), Greenpeace found some progress compared to last year’s survey, but there is lot still needs to be done.

This year’s survey had companies scoring higher and more competitively than last year. We found that fewer products on the market contain PVC plastic and that fewer hazardous chemicals are being used in products in general. LED displays, which save energy and avoid the use of mercury in backlights, can be found in more products today and manufacturers are using more post-consumer recycled plastic in TVs and monitors. Most companies have established better voluntary take-back and recycling programs and adapted quickly to the new requirements of Energy Star. But not everyone was happy to have their products evaluated. Companies that were asked but declined to submit products were: Apple, Asus, Microsoft, Nintendo, Palm and Philips.

The Lenovo L2440x wide computer monitor scored highest with 6.9 points (on a 10-point scale) and is far ahead of the competition in the monitor category. Other product category leaders include the Sharp LC-52GX5 television (5.92), the Samsung F268 mobile phone (5.45), the Nokia 6210 Smart phone (5.2) the Toshiba Portege R600 Notebook (5.57) and the Lenovo ThinkCentre M58 Desktop (5.88).

However no product scored high enough across all areas to deserve the accolade of a truly ‘green product’. Unfortunately, if you are in the market for a new electronics product it’s still a choice between a product that is green in one area but not in another. To show we is possible right now if all current green innovations were combined we took the top scores of each product category to make a composite score for the industry. These ‘best practice’ scores, ranging as high as 8.6, demonstrate that there is environmental know-how available now to produce electronics that are significantly greener than anything on the shelves today.

There were few notable absentees from this research. Apple, always an attractive target for green champions, refused to participate in this survey.

Industry needs to be consistent in ensuring that there is a uniform green strategy for all product lines. Current model of optimizing in one product line and changing composition mix in another for cost reasons will not buy them many converts.

Green Electronics Survey – Free Legal Forms