Greenpeace

HP is now the top-ranked tech company, according to Greenpeace's latest guide to greener electronics.

The guide's criteria has been updated to take into greater account energy use, conflict minerals, green products, and supply chain energy use.

Greenpeace released its latest rankings today, showing HP moving ahead three to the top spot. It's a big leap considering that just six years ago HP was targeted by Greenpeace as one of the worst tech companies for using fire retardant materials suspected of being hazardous. At the time, Greenpeace members stood outside of HP's headquarters and handed out … Read more

Steve Jobs had a hand in another lesser-known Apple achievement: more environmentally friendly electronics.

Apple and environmental watchdog group Greenpeace waged a public battle over how "green" Apple's products were over several years while Jobs was CEO. Environmental groups continue to pressure Apple to improve on some issues, but Apple's products today do not have the toxic chemicals that were there before regulations and environmental groups prodded the electronics industry to change.

In 2005, Apple was slammed by environmental watchdog groups over product recycling policies, and in 2006, Greenpeace targeted Apple over concerns regarding the use of toxic substances … Read more

On today's show, a brilliant solution to the problem of science education, and which tech companies have the best and worst green records (it is Earth Day, after all -- for real this time)! Also, Google and Apple are sending your location data back to the Mother Ship, Amazon is making everyone nervous about the cloud, and AT&T thinks wireless competition is "extraordinary." Uh huh. All that and the best Computer Love success story ever. --Molly

Big Internet companies are quick to tout the energy efficiency of their data centers, but Greenpeace is pressuring them clean up their energy supply, too.

The environmental watchdog group today released a ranking of the big Internet companies based on how dirty the sources of their energy are. The analysis includes a clean-energy index and a coal intensity ranking, with Apple and Facebook using a higher percentage of coal-powered electricity than the U.S. overall.

For the past few years, Greenpeace has been seeking to draw attention to how much energy the computing industry uses and the role that the … Read more

Cisco, once again, was the leader of the pack as Greenpeace released its latest Cool IT Leaderboard on Tuesday.

The environmental watchdog group named Cisco, Ericsson, and Fujitsu, respectively, as the three most environmentally responsible IT companies. Cisco received 70 out of 100 possible points, while Ericsson received 57 points and Fujitsu 52 points. Greenpeace praised Cisco for "making IT climate solutions an increasingly core part of its business strategy."

Cisco was in first place in the group's previous list in April, despite Google upping its public support for climate change legislation in the U.S. at … Read more

In its latest Guide to Greener Electronics, released today, Greenpeace points to some significant changes among computer makers in keeping it clean.

Apple's ranking, for example, has dropped, from fifth place to ninth. More than a year ago, Apple was ranked the highest among computer makers, being the company that used the fewest toxic substances in making its products.

Apple's drop in the ratings, however, doesn't mean the company has been lacking in staying clean and green; but more because it didn't provide the public enough information about its future toxic chemical phase-out plans and the … Read more

Wind energy could be supplying 22 percent of the world's power generation by 2030--and 12 percent as soon as 2020.

That's according to the most aggressive estimate on wind energy in a report released today and funded by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) and Greenpeace.

The 60-page Global Wind Energy Outlook 2010 (PDF) offers three scenarios for how the wind energy industry may develop between 2010 and 2030 depending on the political will, growing energy needs, corporate manufacturing development, and grid infrastructure changes.

The most optimistic estimate--based on what the GWEC believes would happen in the event … Read more

Greenpeace has launched an effort to pressure Facebook to stop polluting with coal, but Facebook counters by saying its newest data center will be a model energy efficiency.

On Wednesday, Greenpeace executive director Kumi Naidoo sent a letter sent to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, urging him to take steps to lighten Facebook's environmental footprint.

Naidoo said that the environmental watchdog group was dismayed by Facebook's plans to build a large data center in Prineville, Oregon. Due to Facebook's rapid growth, that facility will be twice as large as first anticipated and the local utility runs an "… Read more

Greenpeace activists on Wednesday cloaked Dell headquarters in Texas with a banner directed at founder Michael Dell that read, "Michael, What the Dell? Design Out Toxics! - Greenpeace."

The publicity stunt was timed with the Wednesday release of Greenpeace's 15th quarterly "Guide to Greener Electronics" (PDF).

The environmental activist group gave a low score to computer manufacturing giant Dell for its failure to make good on a promise to eliminate toxins like PVC plastics and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from its products.

Greenpeace gave the company low points in its July 2009 guide for missing … Read more