SI: Sony Ties Apple, Samsung In Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics

[Christopher]

This year the overall Sony corporation moves up from 8th place to 7th in the annual Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics, tying with Motorola and Samsung with the same overall score of 5.1. It gains a point for reporting absolute cuts in greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, down 17 percent over the 8 year period of 2000-2008. Renewable energy now accounts for 8 percent of the total amount of energy purchased globally each year, up from 2.5 percent a year ago. Sony also scores points for disclosing externally verified greenhouse gas emissions from its own operations. On the energy efficiency of its products, Sony reports that 75 percent of VAIO PCs released between April and August 2009 meet the latest ES requirements. The AC adapter released in FY2009 meets Energy Star v2.0 standards. All new models of TV’s released in the US comply with the latest Energy Star standards, and 78 percent exceed it by 15 percent or more.

Sony does relatively well on chemicals, but loses points on the stricter C1 criterion, which now requires companies to not only have a chemicals policy informed by the precautionary principle, but also to show support for bans on PVC vinyl plastic and brominated/chlorinated flame retardants (BFRs/CFRs) during the revision of the EU’s RoHS Directive (Restriction of Hazardous Substances in electronics), Sony’s chemicals score is boosted by having models on the market that are partially free of PVC and BFRs, including many models of the VAIO PC, video recorders, Walkman, camcorders and digital camera models. It still needs to set a timeline for eliminating all phthalates, beryllium copper and antimony and its compounds.

On waste issues, Sony’s score is boosted for reporting use of some 17,000 tons recycled plastics annually in various products, representing 10 percent of all plastics used in the 2008 financial year. Almost 90 percent of the recycled plastic was post-consumer, and not the less challenging post-industrial (factory scraps). It reports a recycling rate of 58 percent based on past sales of TVs and PCs, but this information is only for Japan and separate data need to be reported for TVs and PCs. Sony scores relatively poorly for its voluntary take-back and recycling of the e-waste generated by its branded products, as there is little voluntary take-back and recycling in non-OECD countries.

Greenpeace offered a really great PDF with this information and graphs, which you can see below in a handy image (click to enlarge) or download the PDF for click able links and more information.

We will be covering Sony Ericsson in a separate post, which scored a much higher rating of 6.9.

Related Posts:

• Sony Ranks 4.7 out of 10 on Greenpeace’s Green Electronics Guide
• Sony Is Green - Reduces 100,000 Tons Of CO2 & Other Initiatives
• Sony Ericsson Drops 2,000 Jobs
• Sony to Host Free Electronics Recycling Event in Mountain View, California
• Sony Ericsson Issues Profit Warning For 2Q

View the full article