SONY CORPORATION - Environmental Record

In October 2010, Sony was ranked 6th (jointly with Panasonic and Motorola) in Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics that assesses the policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change of 18 leading electronics manufacturers. Number of Sony’s models on the market are partially free of PVC and BFRs, including all models of the VAIO PC, and many models of video recorder, Walkman, camcorder and digital camera.

The company has committed to removing PVC in all new models of mobile products (excluding accessories), and BFRs in the casing and main PWBs of all new models of mobile products by April 2011. However for the improvement in its ranking it still needs to set a timeline for eliminating all phthalates, beryllium copper and antimony and its compounds.

Sony publishes on its website a list of products, for which the company had (as of February 2010) or intended to replace PVC and BFR with alternative substances by the end of FY 2010 (April 2011), nevertheless as of January 2011 the list does not identify which products are fulfilling these criteria at the moment.

Improvement efforts

Since 1976, Sony has had an Environmental Conference. Sony's policies address their effects on global warming, the environment, and resources. They are taking steps to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that they put out as well as regulating the products they get from their suppliers in a process that they call "green procurement". 

Sony has said that they have signed on to have about 75 percent of their Sony Building running on geothermal power. The "Sony Take Back Recycling Program" allows consumers to recycle the electronics products that they buy from Sony by taking them to eCycle (Recycling) drop-off points around the U.S. The company has also developed a biobattery that runs on sugars and carbohydrates that works similarly to the way living creatures work. This is the most powerful small biobattery to date.

Green TV

For sale in Japan on 30 July 2008, Sony's green product, new flat-panel 32-inch (810 mm) TV 150,000 yen (US$ 1,400; € 900) Bravia KDL-32JE1 offers ecological consumers advantages of less energy consumption (70% less) than regular models with the same image quality. Sony was able to reduce carbon dioxide emissions totaling 79 kilograms (174 pounds) a year, without sacrificing quality by developing a brighter back light and better filtering, which produces light more efficiently. The TVs will have liquid crystal displays along with high-definition digital broadcast capabilities. 

Criticism

In 2000, Sony was ridiculed for a document entitled "NGO Strategy" that was leaked to the press. The document involved the company's surveillance of environmental activists in an attempt to plan how to counter their movements. It specifically mentioned environmental groups that were trying to pass laws that held electronics-producing companies responsible for the clean up of the toxic chemicals contained in their merchandise. 

 

In early July 2007, Sony ranked 14th on the Greenpeace chart "Guide to Greener Electronics." This chart graded major electronics companies on their environmental work. Sony fell from its earlier 11th place ranking due to Greenpeace's claims that Sony had double standards in their waste policies. (Wikipedia)