How green are your electronics?

If you're planning on buying electronics this holiday season and sustainability is one of the factors you'd like to consider, then check out the latest version of Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics.

Greenpeace has been ranking major manufacturers of personal computers, cell phones, televisions, and game consoles since 2006. The environmental activist group updates its results four times a year. Click here for details on criteria used to rank companies and here for a PDF of the full report. Ratings are based on each company's policy on the following three issues:

• Elimination of toxic chemicals from products. Hazardous substances make it difficult to safely recycle products. Highest rated: Sony Ericsson, Nokia, and Toshiba. Lowest rated: Nintendo, HP, Dell, and Lenovo.
• Ability to take back products and responsibly recycle them once they become obsolete. Highest rated: Samsung, LGE, Sony, Dell, and Nokia. Lowest rated: Nintendo, Philips, and Microsoft.  
• Efforts to reduce the climate impacts of products and operations. Highest marks: Philips, Nokia, Toshiba, and Panasonic. Lowest marks: Nintendo, Microsoft, and Lenovo.    

Greenpeace says that most consumer electronics manufacturers have gradually improved their performance on toxic chemicals and recycling, but there is room for improvement when it comes to addressing climate change. Only a minority of companies are adequately responding to the issue despite green marketing claims. Greenpeace International campaigner Casey Harrell is disappointed that "such innovative companies are moving so slowly on climate and energy issues."

Here's the breakdown for overall scores:  

Highest ranked: Nokia, Sony Ericcsson, Toshiba, and Samsung.

Lowest ranked: Nintendo, Microsoft, Lenovo, Philips, and Apple.

Most improved: Motorola, Toshiba, and Sharp.

Some caveats:

• Nintendo scores so low because Greenpeace uses publicly available data and Nintendo discloses much less information than the other 17 companies Greenpeace ranks.
• Philips is a leader when it comes to energy and chemicals. Greenpeace reports that even a modest score on waste would put it in the top 3, but the company scores "abysmally low" in that category.