Greenpeace slams eco failure Nintendo

By SmartPlanet on 27 November 2007, 6:04pm

The results of the latest Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics results are in, and as far as the green console wars go, Sony comes out on top, while Nintendo manages to break records...with its poor performance.

Sony is praised for improved recycling and takeback, especially in the US, and increasing the number of products free of toxic PVC over last year. All these factors add up to give the Japanese giant an impressive score of 7.3 out of 10.

Microsoft didn't fare as well, as the Xbox 360 manufacturer has a long timeline for eliminating toxic chemicals and poor recycling policy and practice. This meant Bill Gates' company scored just 2.7 out of 10.

However, Microsoft were positively lauded in comparison to Nintendo, which found itself in last place not just among console makers but out of all the electronics companies on the chart. The Mario factory managed to score a miserable 0 out of 10, which according to Greenpeace makes them the first ever global brand to score nothing across all criteria. However, as Greenpeace kindly put it, this allows "infinite room for future improvement."

The companies were rated on nine different categories, and given a rating of bad, partially bad, partially good, or good -- with points allocated for each score. The categories were chemicals management, timeline for the precautionary principle (a chemicals policy), PVC phaseout, timeline for the phase out of brominated flame retardants (BFRs), PVC-free and/or BFR-free models, individual producer responsibility, voluntary takeback, information to individual customers, and amounts recycled.