For the survey, researchers took in responses from 87 UK-based IT professionals in the three months ending in August this year and found that responsibility for data centre operating and electricity costs was split between job functions.
The electricity budget, for example, was mainly held by finance managers (53%) with fewer than one quarter of IT personnel (23%) and finance professionals (23%) having equal responsibility for data centre operating and electricity costs.
When asked who actually saw their data centres' electricity bills, only 44% of those interviewed said they did while a majority 56% said they did not.
And when asked whether they could easily measure data centre efficiency metrics, a clear majority 58% said they could not.
Asked what information they provided to individual customers or users within their data centre, more than half of interviewees said they provided no information whatsoever.
In addition, half of interviewees were worried that running energy efficiency programmes would add to their capital costs in future.
Infosecurity notes that the results of the survey come just ahead of the opening of registration for the Carbon Reduction Commitment trading scheme - affecting the UK's major companies and government agencies and their suppliers.
Despite this, only one fifth of interviewees said they were aware of current legislation or taxation related to energy efficiency.
According to On365, the biggest challenge for data centre professionals today is in getting the maximum from the space available by increasing the number of high-density racks.
Chris Smith, On365's sales and marketing director, said that his firm are creating more high-density data centres than traditional ones at the moment.
Some data centres, he said, are at a half-way stage in terms of moving to high-density operations.
"You have data centres that are mostly on traditional lines that have a high-density 'room within a room'", he explained.
"Wherever you have high density, you have a challenge with delivering power. But power is the easy challenge - it is the cooling process that's hard.
"When a high-density rack is running hard, a lot of air is being drawn in. We offer hot aisle containers that enclose part of the operation, managing the hot air out and cool air in."
According to Smith, density and data centre designs must now include the ability to take a flexible approach that takes account of particular needs at a a particular time.
He cited the example of a data centre fitted by on365 that runs the BBC iPlayer service: "It is able to cope with huge demand at particular times of the day", he said.
"It's about data centres offering a flexible approach to maximise levels of efficiency. For the data centre itself, it's about maximising the returns you get from the space you have."