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Nintendo has replied to allegations made by Greenpeace that the gaming manufacturer is the most un-environmental of all consumer electronics companies by saying that it complies with current European standards.
Environmental advocacy group Greenpeace this week released the results of a quarterly report which ranks consumer electronics companies from highest to lowest judging by the amount of toxic chemicals and materials used in their designs along with their propensity to take-back and recycle outdated products.
Nintendo ranked lowest on the poll, earning zero points out of a possible ten, closely followed by Philips and Microsoft.
“Nintendo has the dubious honour of being the first company to score 0/10 in the guide,” said the Greenpeace report, which included gaming for the first time since it began running in 2006.
The Greenpeace Guide To Greener Electronics ranked Sony Ericsson at the top of the list with a score of 7.7, becoming the new winner over Samsung which came in at second place. Following in order was Sony, Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba, LGE, Fujitsu-Siemens, Nokia, HP, Apple, Acer, Panasonic, Motorola, Sharp, Microsoft, Philips and finally Nintendo.
The Guide ranked the companies depending on their precautionary principles, chemicals management, timeline for PVC phaseout, timeline for BFR phaseout, PVC-free and/or BFR-free models, support for individual producer responsibility, provides voluntary takeback where no EPR laws exist, provides info for individual consumers on takeback in all countries where products are sold, and reports on amount of waste electrical and electronic equipment collected and recycled.
Nintendo Australia, however, doesn’t agree with Greenpeace’s results, claiming that Nintendo follows all relevant procedures and laws worldwide pertaining to the ‘greenness’ of a product.
“Nintendo is surprised by the content of the Greenpeace report,” said Nintendo Australia managing director, Greg Arthurton.
“Nintendo takes great care to comply with all relevant regulations on avoiding the use of dangerous materials, recycling of materials etc. For example, all Nintendo products supplied worldwide are designed to comply with relevant European standards, which we understand are amongst the most demanding in the world.”
According to Arthurton, Nintendo has even created a certification called the Green Procurement Standard with which its suppliers much comply.
“In order to certify that Nintendo products comply with standards for hazardous chemical substances in Europe such as RoHS Directive, Nintendo has established the Green Procurement Standards, which require our component suppliers certify that any parts including hazardous chemical substances should not be delivered, and Nintendo fully controls its products in the company,” said Arthurton.
“Furthermore, Nintendo products comply with the European toy safety standards.”
Arthurton says his company won’t comment further without speaking with Greenpeace to find the exact testing procedures.
“We do not know the basis or methodology used by Greenpeace to produce this report, and therefore cannot comment on it,” he said.
Though Nintendo ranked lowest, Greenpeace did acknowledge the company’s efforts to manufacture cooler-running machines.
“While Nintendo’s Wii console appears to be more energy efficient compared to the Microsoft Xbox and Sony Playstation, energy use is not yet covered in the ranking,” the report said.
