For all the positive achievements that Nintendo has earned with its current generation of game systems, it seems that it could be doing more to keep itself as green as possible. In Greenpeace's latest Guide to Greener Electronics survey, Nintendo has not performed so well and has in fact, come last in a list of 18 tech companies.
The company remains in last place since the last report, but has slightly increased its overall score thanks to its management of chemical substances, and the publishing of its standards for chemical management. The fact that the internal wiring for its consoles is free from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), the use of phphalates having been banned, and the monitoring of antimony and beryllium use gives Nintendo some much needed points. The management of chemicals is the only area in which Nintendo has scored positively.
The phasing-out of PVC and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) is something that Nintendo is working towards, although it gives no timeline as to when this will happen. The company claims a near 100% recycling rate for product returns and repairs in the United States, but figures for the rest of the world are not available.
With Nintendo reaching the number one spot in console sales and game charts, maybe it needs to be doing more to ensure that it can produce and dispose these products in a non-harmful way to the environment. Across the three sections of the report that covers chemicals, e-waste, and energy, Nintendo has scored very poorly but more disturbing is the sheer lack of any hard numbers, which is definitely cause for concern.
[source greenpeace.org]
Comments 30
That's really too bad. Especially when you consider it's not even as powerful hardware as other consoles and therefor smaller in size so you would say it is more eco-friendly.
Oh no, liberal eco-Nazis are mad at the big N. What ever will they do?
Which means your Gameboy will last longer than that cell phone in your pocket. I have yet to throw out a Nintendo game system into the dumpster. I kind of doubt too many people have given how many people sell or hang onto their systems because they like the old games and because their systems STILL WORK, unlike most other electronics. So where's the problem in the disposal department?
Besides, this is an inexact science. I wouldn't get too twisted in knots yet.
Nintendo doesn't provide information to Green Peace and, therefore, they "flunk" their test by default.
@6: nor do they owe them that info.
@5: I just despise political interest groups in general, regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum.
@diego_pmc....no Nazism is not right wing! Nazism was a socialist movment in Germany wich is left wing politics.
Who care about GreenPeace anyways?
Why the heck did they evaluate again already, anyway? It's only been four months! Freaking eco-nuts GreenPeace.
Ummm.....Nazism was actually was about as far right wing as you could get in practice. In theory they supported what they saw as a third option to socialist and capitalist economics (Hitler claimed to despise both); a mix of right and left wing. As history has proven, however, they were right wing fascists supporting homophobia, xenophobia, religious intolerance, and of course belief of the superiority of a race above all others.
Whats green peace anyways. They should fed-x there waste to sony and microsoft or wait we may know the cause of the red ring of death now. Good going big n take out your competitors.
GP is a joke.
Go Nintendo!
No one really gives a crap what Green Peace says
Liberal Nazism is easy, one just has to move to Australia and it can easily be achieved. Just ask Tony Abbott or better yet Malcolm Fraser!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Abbott
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcom_Fraser#Estrangement_from_the_Liberal_Party
Facism generally allows for a free market economy and is generally considered the farthest on the "right wing" political scale. Communism would be on the left. At any rate, Greenpeace is not going around sending Nintendo fans to concentration camps for its low score, so the comparison to Nazis is fanboyish at best and horribly offensive at worst.
Nintendo does have a lot of things going for it, like low power electronics (though depending on the manufacturing process, it could still have a larger carbon footprint then well-manufactured power hungry computers), and long lasting products. I also have never needed to toss a Nintendo system.
Too many companies in this world keep their factory and manufacturing process completely secret to the detriment of their maltreated employees and the environment as they belch pollutants into the air and water (before you criticize China for its environmental record, think about how much of its pollution is made creating the products YOU buy, including that Wii).
A couple of well placed bribes can generally mean companies can work their employees over 12 hour days, pay wages late, refuse to pay mandatory social security, or not pay their employees at all (they usually say employees are in debt for rent for their dorm room sleeping 12+ people) in China where Nintendo produces it's products. This is a big reason why companies keep their factories secret to save them $$$.
I'm not saying Nintendo's practices aren't environmentally and socially responsible; I'm just saying it would be nice for them to be more transparent so consumers can make an informed choice when buying their products.
As I said the last time, who cares about Greenpeace, or what they say.
@skywake You have no idea how hard I laughed.
"In light of the recent made up holliday designed to make your parent's feel guilty about their cars..." ~Crack Stuntman in reference to Earth Day, refered to as "Erf Day."
Man, I'm all for saving the environment and all, but these eco-snobs have me so riled up, I'm ready to go crank a dozen Hummers, spray a 100 aresol bottles, and start a cow-fart farm.
...okay, that last one was a little gross... ending this post before I get out of line...
...give me GreenCheat any day. =P
Why does everyone hate Green Peace?! If only the enviromentaly-wise incompetent politicians of today would actually do something there wouldn't have to be a GP! If all countries would unite to promote greener electronics and disapprove of harmful ones then GP wouldn't have to do it... Guess what? The politicians do not. Not for real. That's why I consider GP work in this area a GOOD THING. It has had great effect on the companies listed, forcing them to better themselves so that they can compete with their rivals. It's a game between the companies, with the enviroment as a final winner. Who on this earth could REALLY consider that bad?! Think what you want about GP, but the effects of this campaign is undeniable!
Ryu, GP are ecoterrorists, plain and simple.
Frankly, I wonder if there isn't so much detest for Greenpeace that this sort of publicity actually improves Nintendo's image...
Meh, Nintendo should just stay away from those enviomentalist freaks
is anyone in greenpeace's good books? they just want publicity.
What the ...
The bloody Xbox 360 massive huge large big power supply uses more power than the Wii's power supply.
So where the heck did they get those results from?
One month of Wii energy consumption (taken at about two hours per day) equals a week of energy consumption from the 360 and the original PS3. My electrical bill can prove that.
Not to mention that the 360's break all the time, so M should lose some points based on the material waste when it comes time to just toss one and get a new one.
I don't get how Nazis are supposed to be right wing. They had a huge government that controlled pretty much everything. Please correct me if i'm wrong, but Nazi's seem more left-wing to me. Also, Greenpeace is a bunch of lazy people who just sit around critisizing other people.
If Nazis were supposedly extreme right wing, wouldn't that mean they would have a anarchy? Anarchy is the most right you can be.
I didn't mean to start a political conversation here; I simply loathe the left-wing interest groups for their purported "love" of certain things when in reality they're hypocrites and liars. I just think aiming at Nintendo is pretty low.
But the Earth Day comment made me laugh, because Earth Day is the lamest thing ever
Edit: at the recent comment above mine, I was indeed implying that wanting more control by a central governing body was a leftist ideal, but again, I don't like getting into politics. It was merely meant as a snide comment at an organization I dislike.
@post 27. pokermonb294
"I don't get how Nazis are supposed to be right wing. They had a huge government that controlled pretty much everything. Please correct me if i'm wrong, but Nazi's seem more left-wing to me."
Of course, politics are more than just economics. They're extreme right wing based on their social policies like I mentioned in my earlier post.
NintendoLife.
LOL, I agree zkaplan. It's funny how, just skimming through these comments, we've bounced from Nintendo being ranked low according to Greenpeace to Greenpeace love/hate to Nazis to Left and Right Wing to communism and facism. Talk about lost in translation!
Publicity for GP= Publicity for enviromental issues. It truly is simple.
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