More CFOs are recognizing the financial benefits their companies can realize through “green” initiatives, according to a survey of 175 finance executives, conducted by CFO Research on behalf of Jones Lang LaSalle.

Regulatory compliance, energy efficiency or carbon footprint, and greening operations are CFOs’ current priorities in sustainability efforts, the survey found. More than half of the finance executives said that their companies are “very likely or “somewhat likely” to boost revenue, cut operating costs, and improve returns and shareholder value as well as employee retention through sustainability. The most-often cited benefits were reduced risk (“very” or “somewhat” likely to produce benefits at 78 percent of companies), enhanced brand and reputation (77 percent), customer retention (72 percent) and improved employee health and productivity (68 percent).

The greatest barriers to incorporating sustainability into financial strategy included the inability to measure the effects of sustainability on shareholder value (ranked among the top three challenges by 46 percent of respondents), the inability to document the effects on financial performance (37 percent) and the lack of standard decision-making frameworks that consider environmental factors (36 percent). The least significant challenge was organization resistance, ranked among the top three barriers by just 20 percent of respondents.