Green Electronics Survey: Firms use less hazardous chemicals

AMSTERDAM (Scrap Monster): Green peace in its third Green Electronics Survey in 2010 has found that the major electronic companies that took part in the survey have effectively removed hazardous chemicals from their products. More products than ever before are PVC-free and BFR-free, the use of phthalates, as well as beryllium and antimony and their associated compounds were eliminated in every product category.

Greenpeace conducted its third Green Electronics Survey in 2010 to identify the greenest electronic products that will be available on the market in early 2011. This survey primarily consisted of an in-depth evaluation of the products that the manufacturers themselves considered to be their greenest.

Companies took part in the survey were Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, HCL, HP, Lenovo, LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, Panasonic, RIM, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Sony, Ericsson, Toshiba, and  Wipro.

Throughout the survey Greenpeace analyzed the above company’s latest brands to see how much the products are eco-friendly; Greenpeace propounded three criteria for the products as a measure to estimate their green orientation. The criteria were removing toxic substances, responsible take-back of their end-of-life products and energy efficiency.

The fruits of this campaign were an increase in e-waste recycling policies and programs and stricter chemical management by both governments and companies, as well as greener products in the hands of consumers.

The importance of Greenpeace survey was that throughout a product’s lifecycle, from material extraction to production, and from consumer use to disposal, electronic products have the potential to impact human health and the environment, including through the release of dangerous substances and energy consumption

Greenpeace asks each company to adhere to a progressive precautionary principle and support policies that create incentives for the safest possible recycling of obsolete products in every country that its products are sold. As we face the greatest environmental crisis of our time - climate change - the electronics industry must be at the forefront of finding the solutions necessary to lower our individual taxation on the planet as well as its own. It is in these areas that the electronics industry has shown the least amount of progress.

In the survey Greenpeace asked the companies to showcase what are the methods they used to promote green product, and what they do in order to make their products eco friendly.

The products submitted were assessed against four broad groups of criteria, Use of hazardous chemical substances, Power consumption of the products, Product lifecycle, Innovation and marketing.

Greenpeace said it was happy to publish its findings as it found many positive and forward looking steps by the companies. The major findings include, the above companies significantly reduced the use of hazardous chemicals and energy efficient standards of the products increased remarkably.

Finally Greenpeace put forwarded a few suggestions to electronic companies as further steps to achieve total green products. The suggestions are to improve the product lifecycle, energy during production should be tackled, visibility of the prominence of these greener products on the respective websites, energy embedded with the product and finally to change the business model.

For the detailed survey report, see: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publications/toxics/2010/product-survey-3.pdf