E-waste: as much as 4,000 tonnes is being dumped every hour
Our second greener products survey, "Green Electronics: the search continues", released today, assesses the progress made in 2008 by consumer electronics companies on their commitments to green their products. Fifteen major electronics brands submitted 50 of their most environmentally friendly new products - mobile and smart phones, televisions, computer monitors, notebook and desktop computers, and game consoles for evaluation. The survey assesses the products on their use of hazardous chemicals, energy efficiency, overall product lifecycle (recyclability and upgradeability) and other factors such as the promotion of environmental friendliness and innovation.
It's key finding is that while improvements have been made, no product scored high enough across all areas to deserve the accolade of being truly 'green'. Unfortunately if you are in the market for new electronics your choice is still limited to products that are green in one area but not in another. To show what 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.
