HP has taken a step towards becoming more environmentally
friendly with a new toxic substance-free laptop, Greenpeace has
said.
The charity's quarterly
rating of technology companies says the IT giant has improved
its environmental record after Greenpeace staged
protests at HP's offices in the US, China and the Netherlands
in response to its delay in removing toxic chemicals from
products.
HP is still in only 14th place in the ranking, which is topped
again by Nokia, because it has further work to do on e-waste and
carbon emissions. Its ProBook 5310m Notebook 2 is free of toxic
chemicals.
Greenpeace is
campaigning for technology companies to remove PVC and
brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from their products. The
chemicals release cancer-causing dioxins when burned, putting
workers who deal with e-waste at significant risk.
Greenpeace said, "Burning of e-waste to recover valuable
resources, as routinely takes place in the backyards of China,
India and much of the South, can form dioxins. Eliminating the
substances will decrease exposure and increase the recyclability
and reusability of electronic products."
The charity called for market leaders such as Nokia, Apple and
Microsoft to show more leadership on carbon emissions. Apple has
just made details of its emissions public, which will boost its
ranking from 9th on the list as a precursor to reducing them. It
has already eliminated toxic materials from its entire product
line.
Dell and Lenovo are still criticised for delaying phase-out of
toxic chemicals indefinitely. Acer claims that it will still
achieve its target for eliminating PVC and BFRs in all products by
the end of this year. Toshiba has a timeline to phase out these
toxic substances in all its products by the end of March 2010.
Fujitsu, Lenovo and Nintendo are at the bottom of the ranking,
with little or no improvement and growing greenhouse gas emissions,
Greenpeace claims.