Not only are most U.S. corporate leaders interested in sustainability, but the majority of leaders are also examining proactive ways to make sustainability a consistent part of their companies' missions, a new study of corporate America's opinions on sustainability and green building has found.
The report from the McGraw-Hill Companies, in conjunction with its research and report partner Siemens found that 18 percent of corporate leaders surveyed are in the upper, or market transformational, stages, with 15 percent viewing sustainability as a competitive advantage and 3 percent actually driving their entire businesses through this value-driven lens.
"The SmartMarket report's current numbers are encouraging, and the predictions are even more exciting," says Harvey M. Bernstein, vice president of industry analytics, alliances and strategic initiatives for McGraw-Hill. "Almost 60 percent of the top decision-makers in America's most important corporations are seeing the value in sustainability concepts now, with that number expected to increase dramatically to 88 percent in just three years."
The study also found that:
—Government and internal management are strong drivers of green
activities.
—Risk concerns are no longer the primary reason for a company to move
toward sustainable practices.
—60 percent of CFOs see the market differentiation that sustainability
activities and green building can provide their companies, with over
half of other respondents seeing this same benefit.
—63 percent of CEOs recognize the financial benefits of green building, and 67%
of them see a specific operating cost benefit from green.
—57 percent of respondents think green fosters innovation within their
companies.
"Today's corporate leaders are already very conscious of using green practices when considering new facilities, and they expect green building to have an increasing impact in the future," says Brad Haeberle, director of marketing, Siemens building technologies, Inc., "Moreover, they believe that green building is in their company's best interests, not only for the clear economic benefits, but for the market differentiation and competitive advantage."
The research results contained in the Greening of Corporate America SmartMarket Report were drawn from a study conducted for Siemens by MHC's Research and Analytics group under a proprietary agreement. The research is a quantitative study into the opinions of 190 of corporate America's top firms, with no firm having revenues less than $250 million. The majority of respondents were at the CFO or CEO level (84%), or senior vice presidents in environmental or investor-relations positions.
