Greenpeace rates Nintendo dead last

Nov. 27 6:03 PM by Lynxara

This story's been floating about the internet for most of today, but IGN's Daemon Hatfield has the first article I've felt like linking. The Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics comes out quarterly and tracks companies on two criteria, which Hatfield neatly outlines:

: "1. clean up your products by eliminating hazardous substances, and 2. takeback and recycle your products responsibly once they become obsolete. The Guide does not consider issues like labor standards or energy use."

Nintendo scored really low on the Greenpeace scale, by which I mean "zero of three points in every possible category." Every other company evaluated managed to score higher, and yes this includes Microsoft and Sony. Of course, the guide treats Nintendo as a "global brand" rather than as a games manufacturer....

... and that's where I think the evaluation starts breaking down. Check out the actual .pdf breakdown of how Greenpeace got to Nintendo's score. You'll notice that Greenpeace charges Nintendo's hardware and software with no actual environmental issues-- they simply state that they have no information regarding Nintendo's policies in the target areas used to generate the score. Join the club, huh? You can cover this industry for years and emerge with no real idea of what Nintendo's policies about anything are.

I would also gently suggest that Nintendo doesn't have a buyback program because most Nintendo hardware is designed to work for at least 10-15 years. If it's still operating at that point, you don't go out and replace it with a "better Nintendo". It has become a treasured collectible you either sell for mad cash, or carefully preserve so you can keep playing your games without resorting to emulation. Even GameCubes and N64s have significant value if sold second-hand. A buyback program might be useful for disposing of really ancient Nintendo electronics that can't be repaired-- like those front-loading NESes and ancient spinach-screen Game Boys-- but most SNESes and even Game Boy Pockets I've seen lately are in fine working condition.

The entire Greenpeace evaluation style just seems, shall we say, ill-informed when it comes to Nintendo product, how it's used, and how its lifecycle progresses. So I wouldn't worry about your Wii suddenly posing a toxic health hazard, or heavy elements poisoning the kid who just a DS. Greenpeace gave Nintendo a zero not because of anything they did, but because they didn't know anything about what they were doing. They certainly don't seem to know anything about how game consoles age.

I'll put it this way, blog-land: if you could sell-back non-operational Nintendo hardware or manufactured peripherals, would you? Have you ever had a system newer than the NES up and die on you in a way that couldn't be repaired? I'm curious. I bet I don't get many responses, and I bet Nintendo wouldn't be buying back many old systems even if they started such a program.