LONDON — Greenpeace International, an organization that campaigns on environmental issues, has ranked 14 vendors of computers and mobile phones in terms of the use of chemicals and electronic waste recycling in their products. It reckons that none of the companies deserve to be called "green" and that Apple Computer Inc., Motorola Inc. and Lenovo Group are at the bottom of its rankings.

Greenpeace (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) were particularly critical of Apple, which it said was considered a leader in design but was not a leader in environmental innovation. "With a average score of only 4/10 it is clear that the electronics industry has a long way to go before it can make any claims to being a green industry," Greenpeace said in a statement.

Nokia and Dell lead the ranking and achieve a "barely acceptable" score. Hewlett-Packard came third, followed by Sony-Ericsson. Samsung led Sony, LG Electronics and Panasonic, in the positions 5, 6, 7 and 8 respectively. Toshiba and Fujitsu Siemens Computers were ranked 9 and 10. Apple, Acer and Motorola, were ranked 11, 12 and 13 with Lenovo in position 14. No explanation was provided as to why Royal Philips Electronics was not included in the ranking.

The ranking is included in the "Guide to Greener Electronics" and is based on information available on company websites, Greenpeace said.

The scoring is based on five criteria related to chemical use and four criteria related to recycling and reduction of waste. The scoring is weighted towards the use of toxic substances in production, because until the use of harmful substances is eliminated in products, it is impossible to secure toxic-free recycling, Greenpeace said.

Nokia and Dell were praised by Greenpeace for a philosophy that as producers they should bear responsibility for taking back and reusing or recycling their own-brand discarded products. Nokia leads the way toxic chemicals, having eliminated the use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) from the end of 2005 and with a plane to make new phone models free of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from the start of 2007.

Greenpeace did not say how they had selected the 14 companies that were ranked or whether the list would be extended to include other equipment companies or semiconductor companies.