While climate change, forest destruction, bottom trawling, and whaling are still the biggest issues concerning environmentalist organization Greenpeace, the eco-friendly group has also brought its form of activism into the digital age. Since August 2006, Greenpeace has issued its "Guide to Greener Electronics," a quarterly report ranking tech companies on two basic criteria: their willingness to remove hazardous materials from their products and responsibly take back and recycle obsolete hardware.

　　In the November issue of its official magazine, Greenpeace initiated a console race of a different sort, with Nintendo and Microsoft joining electronics giant Sony on the watch-dog group's list. While Microsoft posted fairly poor marks compared to the 17 other top electronics purveyors, Nintendo performed as if it were lorded over by King Koopa himself, scoring zero on a 10-point scale and carrying the distinction of the first global brand to log not even a fraction of a point on the scale.

　　This month, Greenpeace is back again with its guide, and it appears Nintendo has cleaned up a tiny corner the Mushroom Kingdom. The Wii maker managed a 0.3 out of 10, with the only mark not receiving a zero being the company's chemical management. Conversely, Sony continues to rank as one of the top companies on the list, scoring a 7.3 out of 10 and scoring top marks in precautionary principle, chemicals management, timeline for PVC phaseout, and timeline for BFR phaseout. Microsoft saw a marked improvement over November's rankings, landing a 4.7 rating, up from 2.7.

　　Each of the nine categories in Greenpeace's scale is given a point total that ranges from zero to three, running the gamut from bad to good. These categories include precautionary principle, chemicals management, timeline for PVC phaseout, timeline for BFR phaseout, PVC-free and/or BFR-free models, individual producer responsibility, voluntary takeback, information to individual customers, and amounts recycled. Greenpeace's Web site has more information on the breakdown of each of these categories.