March 27, 2008 - More than half of finance executives believe sustainability can help their companies increase revenue, reduce operating costs, build shareholder value, and improve employee retention, according to a new survey from Jones Lang LaSalle. The catch? Many companies are hesitant to incorporate sustainability into financial strategy without concrete metrics for evaluating these prospective benefits.

Respondents cited the following top barriers to sustainability:

inability to measure the effects of sustainability on shareholder value (46%)inability to document the effects on financial performance (37%)lack of standard decision-making frameworks that consider environmental factors (36%)

Interestingly, organizational resistance was considered the least significant challenge to sustainability, ranked among the top three barriers by just 20% of respondents.

"Clearly [sustainability presents] an opportunity that cannot be ignored," says Lauralee Martin, global chief operating and financial officer at Jones Lang LaSalle. "The question each of us should ask is whether we are taking an aggressive enough position, given the rapidly approaching tipping point of this issue."