Nintendo Ranks Bottom of the Bad List in Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics

One of the things I’m constantly preaching on this site is how gamers can be more environmentally friendly with their Game Boys by using rechargeable batteries, solar powered chargers and other alternative energy sources. It was to my utter dismay that I discovered Nintendo ranked at the very bottom of the Bad list in Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics, with a zero score in the criteria that Greenpeace uses to measure how environmentally conscious is an electronics manufacturer. Nintendo shares the Bad list with Xbox makers Microsoft who have poor policies regarding toxic chemicals elimination. PlayStation 3 and PSP owners out there should be proud to know that Sony is ranked third from the top of the Good list scoring a 7.3 out of 10.

With the low Greenpeace ranking aside, Nintendo does have some environmentally conscious programs, mostly surrounding recycling. They use at least 80% recycled paper in their shipping packaging, all of the manuals are printed on recycled paper, they use only recyclable plastics in their accessory packaging, did away with Styrofoam in Game Boy packaging and offer rechargeable batteries for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and Will Controllers. It’s great that they are doing all of this, but not anything exceptional. Recycling and reusable batteries are just a start.

If you want Nintendo to start cleaning up their environmentally unfriendly act you should send them an e-mail and let them know you want to see a change!

• Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics
• Top 4 Products for the Game Boy Environmentalist
• Nintendo' Stance On The Environment