I don't understand this sudden slamming of Sony because they may do things for reasons other than "green". After all, how many of our companies make their products out of recycled soy bean curd?  Sun Microsystems tried it a few years ago, but it so severely impacted server performance that customers insisted that we go back to more traditional and less "green" materials.

The deal behind this Sony business is that there was a RUMOR that Microsoft notified Dutch authorities that Sony Playstation cables contained cadmium.
Over a year ago I had a conversation with a Sony rep in Europe about this matter. He would not comment on the RUMOR (because it was only a RUMOR, and he had the good manners not to comment on a RUMOR) but he did say that the Dutch customs authorities showed up one day at a warehouse and asked to test some of the products. The authorities ran some tests and claimed to find trace amounts of cadmium in the cables of Playstations and they then embargoed the whole lot of Playstations.

The Sony rep told me that Sony's own product specs forbad the inclusion of cadmium in cables, but some vendors ignored it or were just careless.  To its credit, Sony then undertook a very thorough and very expensive top to bottom investigation of all products to make sure that they conformed to all applicable laws and Sony's own specs and standards. Needless to say they did find other non-conformities which they then corrected (again, at significant expense).

I doubt there are many companies that would have gone as far as Sony in ensuring that their products are as "clean" as they represent.  The fact that they did this for reasons other than purely "green" ones is irrelevant.

There are those with good intentions who accomplish nothing, and many people are willing to praise them while being critical of those who actually do good, even if their intentions may not be as noble (as defined by the latest social fad).

WHY Sony does something is less important than WHAT they do. And it has been my experience that the DO good things.


Chuck Dolci


Ryan Grant wrote:
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--
Charles F. Dolci
Director - Business Continuity and EH&S Programs
Sun Microsystems, Inc.

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