Green Power: CEOs target energy savings.
Top executives are thinking green. A recent survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit, the research arm of the popular British business magazine, found that more than half of all CEOs and senior executives rank energy efficiency as a top sustainability priority. The survey polled 1,254 senior business executives from a range of industries; 46 percent targeted real estate as the primary way to achieve efficiency.
For Aaron Nelson of the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, a Denver-based organization that develops and implements sustainable policies, the most interesting finding is that 57 percent of executives say the benefits of going green outweigh the costs. The survey also noted that most companies with environmental goals have higher share price growth, dispelling “the myth that the economy and the environment can’t help each other at the same time,” Nelson says. “[This] will change the market to a greener place.”
Of course, reaching sustainability targets is challenging. “Th is effort requires a lot more [advance] planning; you have to approach it differently,” says Lance Ryan, a marketing executive at Watson Land Co., a commercial developer in Carson, Calif.
The key is starting somewhere, such as adjusting the thermostat. “If you change simple behaviors in an office, it’s a potentially incredible reach,” says Sally Wilson, global director of environmental strategies for CB Richard Ellis, a commercial real estate firm recently named an Energy Star Partner of the Year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
