

Sony's TZ series of 11.1" subnotebooks are singled out for praise in Greenpeace's latest guide to greener electronics, but the company itself was edged out by Samsung, Toshiba and Nokia in the overall runnings.

The TZ, newly garbage-free when it comes to pre-installed applications, is also free of another kind of garbage — beryllium — which landed it the top spot in the advocacy group's roundup of green machines.

Sony, Dell and Lenovo shared second place in the company rankings, however, scoring 7.3. Samsung, Toshiba and Nokia are in joint first place as the greenest manufacturers, scoring 7.7 out of 10.

Nokia would have won handily had it not, according to Greenpeace, been penalized a point "for corporate misbehavior as a result of Greenpeace testing of the companies' take-back practice in the Philippines, Thailand, Russia, Argentina and India."

Apple, called out by Greenpeace in the past, scores a respectable 6.7, along with HP, Sony-Ericsson, Fujitsu and LG. Faring poorly are Panasonic, Microsoft and Philips, scoring close to 4, but this round's Object of Hatred is Nintendo, which gets only 0.3 on the hippyometer.

Each company gets a brief blurb at Greenpeace's home page, explaining the marks given and what they mean. Joint winners Samsung and Nokia score well on their policies toward removing toxins from their machines, with top-placed firm Toshiba praised for its recycling initiative.

Low-placed contenders generally get a wag of the green finger for poor take-back policies. Nintendo is singled out for excoriation, it seems, because it hasn't given Greenpeace details of its policies.

Searching for Green Machines [Greenpeace]