At the Consumer Electronics Show 2009, Greenpeace made a slash at the end of the week airing its latest report on the state of electronics.  While Greenpeace is known at times for its radical environmental protests, its electronics report is surprisingly respectable, though scathingly critical.  It looks at the concentrations of hazardous substances like mercury, lead, and halogenated plastics, as well as looking at the existence and efficiency of companies recycling efforts.  It also examines the energy efficiencies of the devices themselves.

According to Greenpeace's latest survey, electronics companies are showing real signs of improvement, though they still aren't where they need to be yet.  Casey Harrell, Greenpeace International toxics campaigner states, "We're on the hunt for a truly green product that is free from toxic chemicals and excels in energy efficiency and durability. We're pleased to say that the electronics industry has taken encouraging strides towards increasing the green features on some gadgets over the past year but none stand out in all environmental categories. The race for the green winner is still on."

Greenpeace reviewed 50 "environmentally friendly" products from Acer, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens, Hewlett Packard, Lenovo, LG Electronics, Motorola, Nokia, Panasonic, RIM/Blackberry, Sharp, Samsung, Sony, Sony Ericsson, and Toshiba, who all consented to the rigorous testing process.  Sony was the only gaming console manufacturer to submit its product, the PS3, for testing, thus it could be considered the de facto winner in this category, but Greenpeace opted to not rank it due to lack of competition. 

Apple, ASUS, Microsoft, Nintendo, Palm, and Philips were the biggest companies who refused to participate.  Apple, which claims to have the "greenest line of laptops", has had a bitter history with Greenpeace, barring the group from attending its shows.

Of the products tested, the Lenovo L2440x widescreen computer monitor came out on top of the monitor category, with 6.9/10.0 points.  No other competitor was close to it.  In televisions, the Sharp LC-52GX5 TV took top honors, with 5.92/10.0.  In mobile phones, the winner was the Samsung F268, which scored a 5.45/10.0.  The Nokia 6210 smart phone was a close runner up, and the top scoring smart phone, at 5.2/10.0.

The HP Elitebook 2530 laptop scored a 5.48/10.0 to seize top honors in this category.  For desktop computers, the winner was the Lenovo ThinkCentre M58 Desktop, which scored 5.88/10.0.

Mr. Harrell praised all the submitting competitors, stating,"The scores are higher and closer together this year, suggesting a more competitive race to green gadgets, but consumers are still having to choose between gadgets that are green in one way but grey in another.  The electronics industry is heading in the right direction. To stay in the race, each company needs to put its foot on the accelerator, applying any progress it has made across all of its product lines and adopting each other's best practices. We're confident that, as part of the most innovative industry on the planet, these companies can step up to this green challenge."

If you think Greenpeace's grading system sounds tougher than Olympic diving scoring, you may be right, but it did give higher marks this year than last.  Last year only a couple products struggled barely over the five point mark.  This year several were in the high fives or sixes, though there was still no product at a seven or higher.  Greenpeace representatives said they were pleased with the focus on greentech in the press conferences at CES this year.