AMSTERDAM -- Greenpeace wants electronics companies to clean up their acts.

The activist environmental protection organization this week released its study of the "green credentials" of the top electronics OEMs. Ranked on their use of toxic chemicals and electronic waste (e-waste) policies, Dell and Nokia scored highest -- albeit  a "barely respectable" 7 out of 10 -- while Apple, Motorola and Lenovo finished at the bottom of the class. The average score for the 14 companies reviewed was 4 of 10.
The Greenpeace scorecard purports to ascertain which of the companies are doing the most to remove the worst toxic chemicals from their products and which companies have good recycling

For a copy of the report, click here. To see the ranking criteria, click here.

"The scorecard will provide a dynamic tool to green the electronics sector by setting off a race to the top," said Iza Kruszewska, Greenpeace International toxics campaigner. "By taking back their discarded products, companies will have incentives to eliminate harmful substances used in their products, since this is the only way they can ensure safe reuse and recycling of electronic waste."

Nokia and Dell share the top spot in the ranking. According to Greenpeace, those two OEMs believe that as producers they should bear individual responsibility for taking back and reusing or recycling their own-brand discarded products. Nokia leads the way on eliminating toxic chemicals, since the end of 2005 all new models of mobiles are free of polyvinyl chloride and all new components to be free of brominated flame-retardants from the start of 2007. Dell has also set ambitious targets for eliminating these harmful substances from its products.

Lenovo, the Chinese computer manufacturer which also owns the former IBM PC arm, ranked last, scoring just 1.3 of 10.

The guide will be updated every quarter, Greenpeace said. Companies are scored solely on information publicly available on their global websites.