One of the surprises was that 2009 was the year to make a lot of excuses not to do sustainable practices, and there was so much challenge around capital availability and financing availability. Yet, it was stable and 32% of the respondents actually increased spending. I think we're seeing that momentum build and more and more action is on its way. The key is the barriers around the capital and financing availability and certainty of outcome of the energy efficiency investment.

What is needed, and possibly on the way, is legislation or enabling legislation to make financing more attractive and more available to do private sector retrofits, public sector retrofits, that focus solely on energy efficiency and what it means to that particular building or group of buildings.

I think it's a natural evolution as we see more activity moving ahead. Maybe a a different way to comment back on 2009, is if there as ever an excuse to have this as a fad and have this go away, this was the year. That could have taken place and that didn't happen. And there are elements of the survey that indicate just the opposite. Fourteen percent of the companies committed to public goals voluntarily, with no legislation, up from last year. The companies committing more and more resources to include the public image of them, up from last year. Companies admitting separate identifiable components of their capital spend to energy efficiency projects, up this year. And so I think that momentum is continuing to build and we'll see more of that in the future.

Nesler: Certainly in the survey, the things that have relatively low-cost or face fast paybacks were most popular.

GlobeSt.com: Do you think the faster returns influence the choice of what to retrofit? In that, if companies can see returns a little faster, it's easier to monetize those changes in the short-term?

Nesler: I think in a tough year, people are going to focus on the low-cost, no-cost kind of things like education and tune-ups. But we are relatively surprised at some of the more significant investments. One-third are or did upgrade their building management systems, a 25% installed variable speed drives on their pumps and motors )which adjust the speed of fans or pumps based on the actual demand). Thirty-six percent replaced inefficient equipment before end of life. That is clearly a deferrable investment.

Myer: A great example is if you just look at your home, a machine that's two or three years older, it's either on or off. It's either full capacity or zero, and what clay is suggesting is that this helps it only go up to the capacity necessary at the time. And there's tremendous energy savings on pumps and installed air conditioning units. There's a lot of people investing in that capability.

GlobeSt.com:And as far as tenant response, is this more a heart-and-minds thing? They want more sustainability, they want more energy efficiency, but are they saying that they notice a difference?

Nesler: I would say it's more direct than that, they want lower utility bills, which is the financial aspects about it, and they want it to be more attractive to their employees. They're demanding an environment that has market comparable or better capabilities from the stand-point of comfort, from a standpoint of the renewable component that may be involved in the operation to achieve certification and qualifies for something like LEED, for example.

I think those are the drivers. It's not just the pure intangibles. It's the hard dollars and it's demonstrated validation that the kind of activities that generate energy are very efficient.

Myer: In last year's survey, 8% of the participants had at least one green certified building, and it was 12% this year, so it's a 50% increase in those having a certified building. And if you look at the green building goals, 33% said they would seek certification to a recognized green building standard for new construction and 18% for existing buildings. So it appears that this move towards green buildings and the more productive comfortable and healthy environment that they provide is clearly a long-term trend. Those numbers were flat for three years.

GlobeSt.com: Are you seeing higher lease-up rates or better retention rates in companies that are doing these things?

Meyer: There are a variety of sources that are looking at green premiums. Really over the last two to three years there's been a lot of research interest, now that we have enough green buildings, now that we have enough EnergyStar buildings, enough building that we can actually look for comparables in similar markets and similar geographies, there is in fact becoming a body of knowledge which suggests that there is a green premium.

Nesler: One of the significant projects that we worked on was the Empire State building project and if you ask the owner Empire State Building after we went through the design and engineering and the energy retrofit, we're going to save 38% of the energy and it's got a 3.1 year incremental payback, he said he'd be crazy not to make the investment. And that was the "Ah-ha!" that he could certainly green his building to a significant extent and it makes perfect financial sense, in fact he would say, it would be irresponsible not to make that investment.

I think you're right, more and more people recognize that these are low-risk investments that have a good return on investment and can help with loyalty and all the positive benefits in the workspace, the more these type of investments will catch on.

Meyer: To me, that's the creditability that comes behind it, there is a perception that achieving all of these outcomes is a net cost, if you can provide criteria and it's certified, it's attractive to tenants and it's demonstrated to have a strong financial payback, that's a great combination.