MUNICH, Germany — In the latest Greenpeace rankings on environment friendly production methods, Apple Computer fell to the last place of 14 PC and cellphone manufacturers.

In an August ranking, Apple shared the worst place with Motorola and Lenovo. In the meantime, all other companies had improved their environmental standards in production - besides Apple.

In a press release, Greenpeace criticizes Apple for having made absolutely no improvements to its policies and practices, although most of its competitors have achieved such improvements. "Despite being the world leader in innovation and design, Apple is losing the race by falling to keep up with the other companies", said Iza Kruszewska, Greenpeace toxics campaigner.

The environment-friendliest company in the ranking is Nokia. "Good on all criteria, but needs clear timeline for PVC phase out for all applications", judges Greenpeace.

On the second and third place, Nokia is followed by Dell and Fujitsu-Siemens, the latter one with a high score for chemical policy, but, as Greenpeace criticizes, Fujitsu Siemens "should improve takeback and recycling".

Motorola, in the August ranking one of the laggards, managed to grab fourth rank, which proves that progress is possible. "Big improvements on all criteria", judges Greenpeace, but "still needs to provide timelines for phase out of worst chemicals".

According to the Greenpeace release, LGE, Samsung and Sony have lost points for failing to act on their commitments to take responsibility for their waste. Instead, the companies are supporting regulation in the US that places the responsibility for product recycling on their consumers.

At the "dirty end" of the scale, Toshiba and Samsung can be found - but still with a somewhat better assessment than Apple Computer. "Low scores on almost all criteria and no progress", resigns Greenpeace with respect to Apple.

However, the organization sees good success for the campaign with which it tries to urge the PC and handset manufacturers to stop using the worst toxic chemicals in their production, such as brominated flame retardants and PVC. Besides that, Greenpeace is urging the companies to implement a takeback policy for used products at the end of their lifetime.

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