Greenpeace and EPEAT

Finally found an article (other than mine) where Greenpeace and EPEAT are mentioned together - James Murray put together something yesterday. GP now claims that they are 'looking at the whole company' when they do ratings. One might wonder why you performed any testing, working at such a high level, but ok.

There's a few other items here on their new policies, such as GP doesn't give credit for RoHS compliance and they are requiring firms to ban mercury, PVC, and BFRs. It's a good cruising altitude, but the justification and decision framework is missing, and you have no vendor buy in. I haven't seen any mention from any vendor that they are proud of their GP ranking. Nokia? Dell? If I'm wrong here let me know and I'll revise, but it seems like no one will touch it. This is in contrast to EPEAT that has hundreds of products listed.

Every media release is an opportunity for Greenpeace revise their opinion, and they are doing it admirably, professionally. Unfortunately, like many politicians have discovered, the Internet doesn't lie; it locks history away forever, and the order that it occurred. Folks like Steve Abrahamson take this history and sum it up in a few paragraphs, then come to the same conclusion I do; we get it. Thanks. Apple isn't perfect, but (your words) they should be because they are leading everything else. Now don't make us hate you.

Disclaimer: my wife got an iPod shuffle for Christmas. It's the only thing made by Apple that we own.

Update: Heard from Tom at Greenpeace on some press. I was looking for press from vendors that were 'proud of their GP ranking' - these aren't that but here they are:

Hi Mark,

I work for Greenpeace on this campaign. So just to take two issues you raise, on your blog you say no company will acknowledge our ranking. To quote from an article today here's Lenovo doing just that:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/15/BUGDFNHRGD1.DTL

"Mike Pierce, the company's director of environmental affairs, said Lenovo "worked closely with Greenpeace to make sure we understood their concerns." One change that came out of the dialogue was Lenovo's decision to phase out some chemicals that environmentalists have long considered hazardous to the environment, such as brominated flame retardants."

And just as one example of much positive press, MacUser magazine editorial:

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/macuser/columns/95637/editorial.html

Obviously you don't like our methods but with companies like Dell challenging the PC industry to offer free global take back services its good to see some companies moving in the right direction

Update 2 - Tom found another story. This one is more on the mark, as Dell actually did mention the Greenpeace report in one of their 'plant a tree' press releases. Not exactly glowing coverage, but it's enough to print:

Take a look at Dell's press release from January 9, 2007. Leaving aside the dubious benefit of the tree planting headlines it does specifically mention the Greenpeace ranking: http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/pressoffice/en/2007/2007_01_09_rr_001?c=us&l=en&s=gen "Dell works with a number of stakeholders to help set environmental policies, and will continue to work to meet the environmental requirements of customers around the globe. Dell shared the No. 1 position when Greenpeace last year released its first Guide to Greener Electronics report. It ranks the environmental practices of the electronics industry, including product recycling and chemical use policies. Updated quarterly, the December 2006 Greenpeace report ranked Dell second, maintaining its position leading the computer industry."