Nintendo named least eco-friendly tech firm

London, June 26 : Games firm Nintendo has been named the 'least green tech firm' in a survey of the world's most eco-friendly electronics firms.

Eighteen electronics firms were ranked by the charity 'Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics' through its quarterly survey, on the basis of how eco-friendly their production processes and products were.

The charity introduced new, stricter guidelines for evaluating companies in its latest survey, and most firms saw their ranking plummet consequently.

As to why Nintendo scored low, the firm said that it had not provided data for the survey.

"Greenpeace chose to conduct a survey and produce a report, which graded companies upon the voluntary submission of information," the BBC quoted the firm as saying in a statement.

"Nintendo decided not to take part in the survey and were therefore 'ungraded' in the resulting report," said the firm.

Greenpeace, however, claimed that Nintendo had been graded.

"There is no choice," said Iza Kruszewska, toxics campaigner for Greenpeace.

She revealed that the charity was forced to use data from Nintendo's Web site because the firm had been continuously neglecting their request for information since 2007.

Talking about the inclusion of new stricter guidelines, she said: "For this edition we tightened the e-waste and chemical criteria and we also added a new energy requirement."

Kruszewska revealed that the new energy guidelines scored a company for disclosing their greenhouse gas emissions, their commitment to absolute cuts in their own emissions, and support for mandatory global emissions reductions.

She said that the companies were asked, in particular, to state support for a "strong post Kyoto agreement" on their international Web sites.

"We see companies scoring zero on all energy criteria. Clearly it is going to take companies some time to improve on our demands," she added.

The latest guide also assessed the energy efficiency of a selection of each company's products to see if they meet or exceed the US Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star rating.

Kruszewska revealed that Sony and Sony Ericsson were the only companies to score more than five out of 10 in the latest version.

Nintendo came bottom of the list with a score of less than one, followed by Microsoft that came second from bottom.

A spokesperson for Microsoft said: "Microsoft is committed to environmental sustainability and has many programs and policies in place to lessen our footprint. In our consumer electronics business, we comply with and exceed all environmental guidelines and regulations. We are committed to making ongoing progress on environmental issues while maintaining product durability, safety and performance."

ANI