You don’t need to be a futurist to see that any type of energy efficiency improvements these days translates into a bottom line bonus that also protects the environment.

Now there’s another new study that confirms the trend.

This time around, we discover that 74% of corporate real estate execs now recognize the business case for sustainability, and they say they’re willing to pay a premium to upgrade the eco-friendliness of their buildings.

This thanks to the 2009 CoreNet Global and Jones Lang LaSalle sustainability survey. Only 53% said they’d pay for these upgrades in last year’s survey.

The study can be very helpful for those that may need some ammunition to get the green-is-good-for-business message out and pry the Luddites out of their “I don’t want to change” horse-and-buggy belief system.

The execs are not hiding in some ivory tower. They recognize that selling sustainability or efficiency upgrades is still hard to do. They’re also recognizing that to go green also means they have to create an economic case for the upgrade.

Many surveyed said they’re not willing to go overboard in paying a premium for energy efficiency, but they’d cough up 1% to 5% more to lease green working spaces. The big change is that this year, 77% said they’d pay extra for green efficiencies compared to 42% last year.

Also of note: These corporate planners are comfortable with the “sustainability” concept. The survey reveals that 89% of real estate execs said they consider sustainability whenever making decisions about office space.

Tags: CoreNet Global, energy efficiency, Jones Lang LaSalle, sustainability