NEW YORK, N.Y. — Energy efficiency is increasingly a top-of-mind concern for executives and data center managers, not just as a way to trim spiraling electric bills and address carbon footprints, but also because electricity availability is becoming a critical concern.

But although the vast majority of executives are aware of the need to maximize energy efficiency, significant obstacles are preventing them from putting plans in place, according to a new survey from Siemens.

The survey asked executives at Fortune 2000 companies how they're addressing energy issues, and the results echo findings over the past few months: 87 percent of respondents agreed that improving efficiency is an important project, but just 48 percent have created an actual goal to reduce energy use, and even fewer have taken concrete steps toward that goal.

One finding of the survey is that the idea of green IT is starting to take hold in business mindsets. "sustainability is the big buzzword," said Glen Seimetz, the Senior Director of Data Center Strategy and Portfolio at Siemens IT Solutions and Services North America. "People do have a care about that now, they realize that we have 10 years to do something serious, and there are companies that are taking it seriously."

But it's not just a feel-good green mentality that's taking hold, Seimetz explained. "People are also finding out that you can save money ... you can do green and save money -- people are learning that it's not mutually exclusive."

With budgets a key concern in tight economic times, finding the funding to put green IT projects in place remains one of the biggest obstacles that survey respondents noted: 72 percent said that the size of the investment was keeping them from adopting best practices for green data centers. Uncertainty about the ROI on some of these investments was another concern cited by 38 percent of executives.

In an interview with GreenerComputing, Seimetz ran down a short list of relatively easy fixes that data center managers can take to improve the efficiency of their facilities, based on recommendations from Siemens' IT assessment program. Many of these steps stem from outdated data center practices, like running cabling through the floor rather than overheard, and a lack of plugs around that cabling; by stopping up those gaps around cables, Seimetz said companies can save 15 percent in energy use.

Whether by performing a simple walkthrough with efficiency experts who can spot often-overlooked problem areas, or engaging a more in-depth computation fluid dynamics model to highlight hotspots and overly cold spots in the data center, Seimetz said bringing fresh eyes to the facility can make a quick difference.

Siemens' survey follows on a slew of recent studies showing just how much improvement remains to be achieved in data centers; last week, a study by the BPM Forum found much the same news: companies are increasingly aware of the need to improve performance, but change is slow to come.