Greenpeace Down on Games Industry, Logic Flawed?

Earlier this week Greenpeace went after the games industry a bit, coming down on hardware manufacturers for poor environmental practices. Nintendo and Microsoft in particular got poor scores from the organization. Ars Technica's Opposable Thumbs blog notes, though, that their methodology is a bit odd. It's not so much that Nintendo's environmental policies (say) are all that bad - they're just not readily available on a website. "The research in general appears lazy. Nintendo's failing grade appears to be based entirely on this entry in the corporate FAQ, which briefly summarizes some of the steps the company has taken to protect the environment. Anything that's not covered there is simply rated "No Information." Similarly, all of the information on Microsoft originates from press materials and corporate statements on the company's web site. Clearly, Greenpeace did not perform an exhaustive evaluation of chemical use through the manufacturing pipeline."

alternatives

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Saying something's bad is a lot easier than providing viable alternatives. After all, if you throw paint on fur, doesn't that just make the wearer (who obviously is not adverse to buying fur) have to go buy another one, thus propagating the industry more? It's much harder to legitimately convince them to wear something else.

The whole thing is about disclosure

[sweatyboatman]

The fact that their environmental records are impossible to determine should not be considered a defense.

I am a consumer of consoles and games. I am also gravely concerned about the environment. In an ideal world, I would favor (e.g. buy more of the products of) only manufacturers that use the most environmentally-sound practices. However, today, there's no easy way for me to tell if Nintendo is "greener" than Microsoft or Sony. And since I cannot tell, I cannot base my purchasing decisions on it, and there's no incentive (from the demand side anyway) for Nintendo, Microsoft or anyone else to spend extra money to use less fossil fuels/harmful chemicals/baby seals in their products.

Reports like this one from Greenpeace are a first step in getting these companies to be more transparent regarding the true environmental cost of their manufacturing processes. If that information became as ubiquitous as privacy policies it would lead to an arms-race among manufacturers to see who could implement the greenest practices.

So before you damn Greenpeace for taking your favorite console maker to task, consider the broader picture of what they're trying to accomplish.

Re:What a waste

[king-manic]

Meh, Greenpeace is a bunch of rich kids who like to gripe and love to trash anything thats popular, truth be damned.

I wonder if there is an "Environmentalists against Greenpeace" group? I would like to join.

When I was taking an ecology course in University my prof always harped about how counterproductive green peace was. Not all ecological goal can be achieved by "Doing nothing to the environment". In some ecologies they are so out of whack that "culling" is indeed required but Green Peace isn't about preserving ecologies but about making headlines, making young activist feel good, and saving cute furry animals (in a short term near sighted way).

Sometimes they are doing good work, for instance when they disrupted Japanese "scientific" research into whales. However the majority of their activities are media friendly, poorly researched, publicity stunts.

Re:What a waste

[cliffski]

"With all their wealth and power":

from greenpeaces 2006 annual report (freely downloadable)
Income: $14 million
Expenses: $15.5 million.

lets pick a games company:
Nintendo's net sales for the first half of this fiscal year amount to 6.08 billion USD The operating income results in 1.65 billion USD, and the net profit is the aforementioned grand total of 1.15 billion USD.

I cant really see how greenpeace are some big evil corporate bully that is wasting its powers. And exactly how do you conclude that the organisation's goals have been reached? There are still oil spills, still companies dumping toxic chemicals all over the place, and climate change is still an issue.

Games players are second only to car enthusiasts for the rabid inability to accept that there might be any way in which their hobby is actually a bad thing in any sphere of life. I love gaming, but I know full well that my gaming PC is the #1 most inefficient and expensive to run piece of hardware in my entire house (cooking and heating may sue mroe energy, but they are essential for my survival and not on 12 hours a day like the PC).

Personally, I'm 100% in favour of hardware companies being pressured to make energy efficient video cards, CPU's and consoles. This can only be a good thing, unless of course, your mom is currently paying your electricity bills.

Re:Unfortunately

[xappax]

Well there are plenty of morons that just like shouting about all the things that are bad with society, rather than trying to provide any solutions.

This is a generic argument trotted out tirelessly when people are confronted with activists who they don't agree with. It can just as easily be applied to you: All you're doing is complaining about how bad environmentalists are, what's your alternative? You offer no solutions for how we can get society to be responsible with ecosystems if not by being environmentalists? Are you just some kind of anti-environmentalist "causehead"?

That's not a fair argument, though. You have a right to criticize just as environmentalists do, and your criticism - like theirs - can be a valuable step towards improving things in general. I don't want to live in a world where people are condemned for pointing out problems unless they have a comprehensive plan to fix the problem. Intellectualized kneejerk anti-activism is the beloved ally of stubborn ignorance.

Why should Nintendo bother to recycle?

[dank zappingly]

Gamestop recycles for them. Old gameboy cartridges can be played in the advance. Old advance cartridges can be played in the DS. Old gamecube games and controllers can be used in the Wii. Old Nes's and SNES's are still coveted for nostalgia value. I've thrown away a ton of electronics in my day, but I don't think I've ever thrown away anything Nintendo branded unless it was broken. Next thing they're going to be complaining the VC titles use valuable electrons when they are sent over the internets. It's not like there is a landfill full of old videogames out there polluting the groundwater. This is a publicity stunt plain and simple and should be recognized as such.