The good news is that sustainability is on the boardroom agenda. The bad news is that business doesn't know what to do about it.

A new study by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Action or Aspiration?Sustainability in the workplace, has found that business thinks promoting sustainability is great for reputation and public relations. The trouble is, it does not seem to do much for the bottom line.

The study found found that 46 per cent of corporations said sustainability programs helped improve brand value. But only one in five felt it improved profitability.

The study, which canvassed the views of 1164 executives from around the world, raised significant questions about business commitment to sustainability and whether actions matched propaganda.

Sustainability issues seemed to be popular at the top end of a company, but there was little evidence of it being implemented further down the food chain. Nearly 37 per cent of respondents said direction came from the board level but there was less engagement at lower levels. While most board level executives said they collaborated with the sustainability manager, only one-third of junior managers claimed the same access. Most staff had not been consulted about how sustainability practices could be integrated into their daily jobs. In 40 per cent of the organizations, the person responsible for sustainability did not report directly to the board. Nearly 23per cent of organizations had nobody responsible for these issues. According to the research, 33 per cent of respondents said their companies only made sustainability efforts in markets where they thought it would have an impact on customers' perceptions.