Just ask David Letterman: everyone loves a list.

Its juiciness as an attention-getter has not escaped the environmental non-profit Greenpeace, which regularly issues a list rating the greenness of electronics companies.

The latest edition of its ratings, issued in late November, comes across like Simon Cowell in a cranky mood. "(V)ery few firms are showing true climate leadership," states a press release accompanying the report. "Despite many green claims, major companies like Dell, Microsoft, Lenovo, LG, Samsung and Apple are failing to support the necessary levels of global cuts in emissions and make the absolute cuts in their own emissions that are required to tackle climate change."

The report, which graded eighteen electronics companies, ranked Nokia number one, followed by Sony Ericsson and Toshiba. Special notice of the negative sort went to bottom-dwelling Nintendo ("zero on most criteria except chemicals management and energy") and Philips, despite the company's scoring well in some areas ("the biggest obstacle in the electronics industry to tackling the growing problem of e-waste").

A strict taskmaster, Greenpeace is plainly unhappy with the overall eco-performance of the electronics industry. It notes that "many electronics firms have put a great deal of emphasis on green claims," but "no company has yet achieved clear leadership across the board."

Hmm ... remember what I wrote above about "everybody loves a list?" Maybe not. Given how much companies prize their reputation, the electronics industry probably isn't enamored of the Greenpeace list.