Apple is bad for the planet

Apple has been ranked near the bottom of a list of companies’ efforts to stop climate change, with a score of two compared to HP's 59 - both out of 100.

The list currently includes 56 firms across industries and scores them on how well they have measured their climate footprint, reduced their impact on global warming, supported positive climate change legislation and publicly disclosed their climate change actions.

Climate Counts, a new non-profit organisation, plans to update the list every year and encourages consumers to base their buying decisions on companies' efforts against climate change.

Apple's low score comes after a months-long dispute with Greenpeace over its environmental policies. The company is "not yet taking meaningful action on climate change," says Climate Counts which criticised the company for failing to issue public information about its environmental impact or policies.

Last month, Apple CEO Steve Jobs did in fact publish an open letter outlining the company's environmental policies and pledging to remove toxic chemicals from its products. The updated MacBook Pros released by Apple earlier this month were the first to ship with LED-backlit displays, which don't contain the mercury gas used in displays with cold cathode-fluorescent lamps.

Among companies grouped under the "Electronics" heading, Canon had the top score of 77. Yahoo's 36 was the top score in the Internet/Software group.

Climate Counts plans to update the list every year and encourages consumers to base their buying decisions on companies' climate change efforts, as reported on its site.

Google only received a score of 17 despite recent green initiatives, including building the largest solar installation on any corporate campus in the US. This was mainly for failing to do a good job tracking corporate emissions or reporting on efforts to improve.

At the recent launch of an initiative to improve energy efficiency in computer power supplies, a Google executive said he knew the company’s carbon footprint but declined to disclose it.

Amazon actually did worse than Apple, scoring zero, while eBay only managed to equal Apple's score of two.

Yahoo and Microsoft fared slightly better, earning 36 and 31 points respectively. A number of firms are attempting to be seen to be tackling the problem, with HP, which scored 59 points, announcing at its annual Technology Forum in Las Vegas that it sees clear benefits in saving energy.

GreenOrder, a company that advises businesses on sustainability and corporate responsibility issues, verified the scoring results for accuracy.

Apple, Amazon.com and Google were not available for comment.

Additional reporting from Macworld.