At CES last week, Greenpeace released the 14th edition of its Guide to Greener Electronics. How do the manufacturers of your personal computers, cell phones, TVs, and gaming consoles rate?

The Greenpeace Guide ranks 18 global manufacturers according to their publicly-stated policies in three areas:

• Cleaning up their products by eliminating hazardous substances
• Taking back and recycling their products responsibly once they become obsolete
• Reducing the climate impacts of their operations and products

Among the leaders are Apple, Sony Ericsson, and Nokia, which Greenpeace applauds for releasing products free of the worst toxic chemicals. Meanwhile, Samsung, Dell, Lenovo, and LGE received penalty points for failing to phase out brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) by 2009.

During CES, Greenpeace named HP "Best In Show" for producing the first Microsoft Windows-based desktop free of PVC and BFRs. "Worst In Show" went to Samsung for its "antiquated technology and policies."

• View the full guide and criteria at How the companies line up

Certainly this is only one set of criteria, and Greenpeace's guide is not immune to criticism. For some perspectives on it, check out the New York Times article, Green Guide to Electronics Is Disputed, but Influential.

Related: The Greenpeace Guide to Who's Being Green (2008)

(Image: Greenpeace)