Green Electronics Guide

Find additional tools and tips for greening your nonprofit through TechSoup's GreenTech Initiative, where social benefit organizations can share and learn more about technology choices that can help to reduce our overall impact on the environment.

Greenpeace recently updated its Green Electronics Guide, which shows how mobile phone and computer manufacturers stack up when it comes to eliminating harmful chemicals and handling products once they've been discarded by consumers.

As with the EPEAT Web site, Greenpeace's guide can help you and your nonprofit make better purchasing decisions and simply be mindful of the real environmental and health costs of the technology equipment you use every day.

The guide — in tandem with other Greenpeace campaigns — has enjoyed some success in pressuring vendors to clean up their acts. In 2006, for example, Greenpeace's Green My Apple campaign and Web site pressured Apple's Steve Jobs to announce the phasing out of certain chemicals and greater transparency in manufacturing.

Nevertheless, the guide shows that even the top-rated manufacturers still have a long way to go toward greening their policies. For example, Dell, which ranked 7.3 out of 10, got high marks for takeback policies but low marks for using some of the worst chemicals.

Because the Green Electronics Guide is updated regularly, you can also see where some companies are on an upward trajectory in terms of environmental improvements, and where others are on a downward spiral. Either way, after reading it, you probably will check the brands on your electronics equipment a little more closely.

Read the full report.