NEW YORK, March 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- In the first in-depth
study of its kind, CFOs and other senior finance executives
overwhelmingly report that environmental sustainability is an
increasingly important issue for their companies, and that a range of
significant financial benefits are achievable for companies that can
implement strategies that truly reduce their impact on the environment.
Conducted
by CFO Research in collaboration with leading global commercial real
estate and money management firm Jones Lang LaSalle, the study surveyed
175 corporate CFOs and senior finance executives. Among the key
findings of the report:
* More than half of finance executives believe their companies are "very likely" or "somewhat likely" to increase revenue, reduce operating costs, improve investor returns and shareholder value, and improve employee retention through sustainability. The most often cited benefits were reduced risk ("very" or "somewhat" likely to produce benefits at 78% of companies), enhanced brand and reputation (77%), customer retention (72%), and improved employee health and productivity (68%). * The highest priority objectives in corporate sustainability are regulatory compliance (ranked as a high priority for 61% and a mid-level priority for 26% of respondents), improving energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions (a high priority for 47%, mid-level for 32%), and reducing the environmental impact of operations (45% and 32%). * The greatest barriers to incorporating sustainability into financial strategy include the inability to measure the effects of sustainability on shareholder value (ranked among the top three challenges by 46% of respondents), inability to document the effects on financial performance (37%), and a lack of standard decision-making frameworks that consider environmental factors (36%). The least significant challenge was organization resistance, ranked among the top three barriers by just 20% of respondents.
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