Nintendo Not Very Green

A Greenpeace survey ranks games company Nintendo last among eco-friendly electronics companies, although Nintendo says that's simply because it didn't provide data.

It’s not easy being green, but these days it’s important. That’s why the Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics is important. It ranks 18 electronics companies each quarter on the “greenness” of their products and production process.

Now Greenpeace has brought in new guidelines, and as a result, most companies have seen their rankings fall, but none more so than Nintendo, which scored below all others in the new survey.

And that’s caused a bit of claim and counter-claim.

According to the BBC, Nintendo said it simply hadn’t responded to Greenpeace requests to provide data and was then classed as “ungraded.”

Greenpeace, on the other hand, said it had been graded, and the lack of response meant they’d had to use information available on Nintendo’s website.

The guide began in 2006, and the new guidelines “we tightened the e-waste and chemical criteria and we also added a new energy requirement," Iza Kruszewska, toxics campaigner for Greenpeace, told the BBC. Among other things, the guide checked to see if a company’s products met the EPA’s Energy Star rating.

Overall, Sony and Sony Ericsson came top with five out of a possible 10, but Nintendo managed just one, and above it was Microsoft.