Lights are on but no one is home when it comes to energy efficiency.

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A new global survey of 1,254 senior business executives, including more than 300 CEOs, shows that energy efficiency plays a central role in corporate sustainability efforts--a finding that has implications for how companies manage their real estate.

Fifty-two

The survey, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), was cosponsored by global real estate services firm, Jones Lang LaSalle, and seven other leading companies from different industries: A.T. Kearney, Bank of America, ExxonMobil, Orange, PricewaterhouseCoopers, SAP and SunGard.

The overall report, issued by the EIU, sheds light on the growing importance of corporate sustainability in enabling companies to compete and to attract customers.

While the survey did not focus specifically on real estate topics, 46% of respondents selected one of three real estate strategies as the number-one sustainability priority from a list of 10 possible priorities.

"CEOs and other corporate officers are very focused on improving sustainability, but they may not realize the major impact their real estate departments can make in achieving their goals," said Dan Probst, chairman, global environmental sustainability board at Jones Lang LaSalle.

"As this study shows, the path to sustainability often starts with real estate and facility strategies."

Specifically, the EIU survey found:

* 33% of senior executives ranked "improving energy efficiency across global operations" as a major priority, and 19percent ranked it as the leading priority.

* 36% ranked "improving the local environment around operating facilities" as a major priority, and 14% ranked it as the leading priority.

* 26% ranked "reducing greenhouse gas emissions and/or waste/ pollutants as a major priority, and 13% ranked it as the top priority. Buildings are responsible for nearly three quarters of a company's total GHG emissions, excluding manufacturing.

The "leading priority" selected by the most CEOs is also addressed through real estate operations, albeit less obviously.

Thirty-seven percent ranked "communicating performance on sustainability to investors and stakeholders" as a major priority, and 24% ranked it as the leading priority. Responses to another question show that 36% of CEOs view "difficulty in developing targets, measures and controls required to entrench sustainable priorities within the organization" as a leading barrier to progress in sustainability.

As a leading global facility management firm with proprietary tools in place to measure and report progress in portfolio-wide energy and sustainability initiative, Jones Lang LaSalle helps some of the world's largest companies meet the challenge of gathering, analyzing and reporting information on energy and water usage, greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts.

The EIU study also revealed reasons why a focus on sustainability makes good business sense. EIU found that global companies that have delivered strong share price growth over the past three years are more proactive on corporate sustainability issues than those that have seen their share price stagnate or decline.

Companies in the survey that have seen their share price performance grow by at least 50% in the last three years (share price climbers) place a higher importance on social and environmental goals than companies with share prices that have declined by more than 10% (share price losers).

A majority of executives (57%t) said the benefits of pursuing sustainability outweigh the costs. Although more than 80% expect a minimal benefit to profitability. They believe sustainable practices can reduce costs (particularly energy expenditure), open up new markets and improve their company's reputation.

Senior executives acknowledged difficulty in executing on sustainability goals, implementing an average of just 4.8 policies out of a list of 16, EIU found. In addition, more executives reported poor performance than good performance on individual areas of sustainability.

"The results of this research show that most companies are still working out what sustainability means for their business, and how to implement it," says Robin Bew, editorial director of the Economist Intelligence Unit. "At a basic level, a lack of consensus on what the topic encompasses results in an absence of relevant targets."