Print - Lenovo Tops in Environmental Friendliness

Greenpeace this week said that PC maker Lenovo was the world's most environmentally friendly electronics firm, thanks to dramatic improvements in its hardware recycling efforts. Meanwhile, Mac-maker Apple, which has global warming guru Al Gore on its board of directors, came in dead last on the list of 14 firms Greenpeace highlighted.

Greenpeace began issuing its environmental ratings for electronics firms on a quarterly basis last year. The organization examines which toxic chemicals electronics firms use while making hardware, and what efforts the companies employ to help former customers recycle their products when they're no longer usable. Greenpeace says that no electronics firms are truly "green" in that all of them contribute, in some way, to environmental distress.

Lenovo, which topped the list this quarter after ranking poorly in the last survey, made big gains by offering no-questions-asked recycling services for old hardware in all of the countries where its products are sold. However, Lenovo also uses some of the most toxic chemicals possible in its manufacturing plants.

Last place Apple lost marks for its toxic chemical use and poor recycling efforts. In fact, as Apple fans, Greenpeace is so disturbed by Apple's poor marks that it's set up a special Web site describing the problems. "Why do Macs, iPods, iBooks and the rest of [Apple's] product line contain hazardous substances that other companies have abandoned?" the site reads. "A cutting edge company shouldn't be cutting lives short by exposing thousands of children in the developing world to dangerous chemicals."

According to Greenpeace, the top five most environmentally friendly electronics firms are Lenovo, Nokia, Sony/Ericsson, Dell, and Samsung. The remainder of the list includes Motorola,
Fujitsu/Siemens, Hewlett-Packard, Acer, Toshiba, Sony, LG Electronics, Panasonic, and Apple.

this is an old video, but it's completely relevent here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Uo_4kyrkDc XP

8-core Mac Pro's with 3TB of storage and 16GB of RAM? Finally, a Vista-capable machine!

"Last place Apple lost marks for its toxic chemical use and poor recycling efforts. In fact, as Apple fans, Greenpeace is so disturbed by Apple's poor marks that it's set up a special Web site describing the problems." Does that mean Greenpeace activists use Macs? Maybe they should drive Hummers and complain about their fuel efficiency too.

"Meanwhile, Mac-maker Apple, which has global warming guru Al Gore on its board of directors, came in dead last on the list of 14 firms Greenpeace highlighted." That makes Al Gore what? A hypocrite. "8-core Mac Pro's with 3TB of storage and 16GB of RAM?" A giant leap in Apple's efforts to destroy the environment!

I'm suprised with Apple's low scores. They should be the least polluting because of their low market share.

"I'm suprised with Apple's low scores. They should be the least polluting because of their low market share." I don't think Greenpeace measures the gross volume of polution, more like the per-unit pollution. In the same way an iPod is thermically inefficient when compared to an LN2 cooled PC. Sure the iPod uses no wattage compared to the PC, but while the iPod makes the room hotter, the PC makes the room cooler. You can make numbers say what you want, it all matters in the delivery. That's the real reason I'm suprised about the report. Even with all the fiddling by the admittedly bias Greenpeace, Apple scrapped up the bottom of the mucky green barrel.

"That makes Al Gore what? A hypocrite." He didn't need this. The $30,000/year electricity bill was enough.

Wait...I may have to rethink my post on the last EU article...lets see, does Steve Jobs and Apple do good or bad for the world??? Hmmm, what to do............................................................................................................ .............................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................. ........................................................Yes, DRM free music is a much higher priority in my mind, so I can still say it...God Bless Steve Jobs and Apple!!! --tayme

Apparently - Apple really is eviro-conscience. http://www.apple.com/environment/ Al Gore probably made them put up that page...

"Oh, and Al Gore is an idiot; even though he invented the internet!" He never said he "invented the internet [sic]". I'm sure you know this, which makes you even more of an idiot for repeating it.

@lotsa - whoa there big fella...who p00ped in your Cheerios? And since you seem to get into your [sic] bomb lobbing and childish name calling when you feel defensive about a subject...just who is the idiot? Tell me what is mis-spelled about the word internet? --tayme