Ethical Consumer magazine today publishes the world's most comprehensive green and ethical buyers' guide to laptops and netbooks.

The buyers' guide ranks 26 leading IT brands across 23 ethical and environmental categories and presents them in a simple ranking format. The unique twist is that web users can customise the rankings to accurately reflect the issues that they personally feel passionate about.

The result is that for the first time consumers can easily identify and support those companies whose green credentials they agree with and avoid the companies that are falling behind on the green agenda.

The buyers' guide key findings are:

• Only two companies score top marks for environmental reporting (Sony and Toshiba)

• Only one company scores best in the habitats and resources category (Dell)

• Thanks to the work of NGO's and civil society groups, the overall transparency and reporting on social responsibility issues is improving, albeit inconsistently, across the sector

Thanks to the work of NGO's and civil society groups, the overall transparency and reporting on social responsibility issues is improving, albeit inconsistently, across the sector.

Tim Hunt from Ethical Consumer said:

 “This buyers' guide shows that the market for laptops and netbooks is littered with serious problems both environmental and social.     Consumers need to let IT companies know that they must do better. Ultimately we need to see far more action from the companies themselves to improve their ethical performance.”