The ranking methodology utilized by Greenpeace and Newsweek are radically different; the Newsweek rankings are based on a holistic view of the companies including greenhouse emissions, water consumption and supply chain management. Greenpeace study analyzes more focused benchmarks like the use of toxic chemicals.

Greenpeace's biggest knock on HP is it's continued polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardant (BFR) usage despite a commitment to discontinue their utilization, while Newsweek recognizes their continued use— they give HP credit due to progressively diminished usage.

HP got especially high marks for it's Green Policy and Performance from Newsweek, issues Greenpeace did not consider. While Newsweek's ranking system is more comprehensive, there is good reason Greenpeace looks specifically at PVC and BFRs. Dioxin, an organic compound, produced as a byproduct of PVC production has been implicated in a broad range of health problems from acne to sarcoma.

Both rankings have valid rationales to justify their methodologies, HP most likely belongs somewhere in between #1 and #14. [Newsweek and Greenpeace]

Thanks Prof. Singaram for helping me work through organic chemistry.

Constructed mostly of PVC pipe, the DIY net gun is capable of shooting a "90 square foot net 15 to 25 feet using 80-100 psi of compressed air." The construction process itself looks a little daunting for the rookie builder, requiring either a heat gun or propane torch for bending the PVC, but it's otherwise just a lot of sawing, wrenching, gluing and swearing.

While we don't want to pressure you into taking on a project that may (and will probably) lead to your arrest, building a badass net gun does seem like a noteworthy New Year's resolution... [Instructables via MAKE]

What would have really had Greenpeace all hot and bothered last Tuesday was if Apple had become the first vendor to announce a laptop without polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or brominated flame retardant (BFR) materials. These two chemicals have a nasty habit of releasing their toxic badness when they're burned during disposal overseas.

"They fell slightly short of that goal," Harrell said. "They didn't quite get the PVCs out of the external power cord. If Apple can achieve that, then we could unequivocally say that they've put the rest of the computer industry on notice that these materials can be completely eliminated."

Apple, for its part, responded to the criticisms this week with a quiet press release, which was no doubt drowned, beaten and forgotten thanks to the circus in Cupertino Tuesday morning. Regardless, the release pledged that Apple will completely eliminate all PVC and BFR components by the end of this year.

If Apple can manage that, Harrell said, then it would give Greenpeace greater leverage against other computer manufacturers (e.g. Dell, Lenovo and HP).

In other news, Greenpeace also hates the iPhone, the MacBook Air, and puppies that poop too much. But, it loves Apple for the headlines that its products garner for Greenpeace, so go figure. [Yahoo News]

"Apple is getting greener, but not green enough," said Rick Hind, the legislative director of Greenpeace's toxics campaign. "The Macbook Air has less toxic PVC plastic and less toxic BFRs, but it could have zero and that would make Apple an eco-leader," he added.

and

"Apple sometimes gets really defensive," Hind admits. "They say: Why are you picking on us—especially when we have such a small market share compared to the rest of the industry?"

The reason, according to Hind, is simple. Apple is seen as a tech leader, especially when it comes to innovation. Even though companies like Dell and HP are much larger and ship many more computers, Greenpeace singles out Apple in order to draw attention to the whole tech industry's eco policies, Hind says.

Read the rest of the back and forth over at Wired. [Wired]