In this, the week of all things Green, I’d be remiss if — amidst the talk of CFL bulbs, organic farmers, and the like — I didn’t bring up that other green issue: Gen Yers. (Don’t act so surprised…)

At Fortune’s Brainstorm Green conference in Pasadena earlier this week, there was much high-level discussion amongst high-level executives, researchers, and activists of the problems one might expect — for instance, panels such as “Nuclear Power: A Debate” and “The $1 Trillion Carbon Market.” But what struck me was the way that Gen Yers crept into these green leaders’ conversations.

In “Wall Street and Climate Change,” Lehman Brothers managing director Theodore Roosevelt IV called green one of his best recruiting tools, saying that when Lehman goes to business schools, the younger generation asks what the company’s doing about environmental issues. And in “The Green Consumer: Myth or Reality,” Marc Mathieu, Coca-Cola’s SVP of global brand marketing and creative excellence (i.e. marketing guru), pointed out from the audience that — whatever the back and forth here about how to get consumers who say they’d rather buy green to actually do it — the next generation was going to take ownership of this movement. They’re not going to change when they get older, he said, citing his own teenagers, who are all members of Greenpeace or organizations like it.

To some extent, this is starting to emerge in the research, like this 2007 study, which found that 50% of Gen Y respondents said environmental messaging influenced their shopping behavior. (For the record, I’d like to think that older people would say the same, but the study didn’t go there.) It called to mind a recent conversation with a researcher in this field, who said that, as far as he could tell, the only thing preventing young people from going completely green was their obvious lack of that other kind of green — cash. As Yers’ incomes grew, he thought, we’d begin to see the impact of their green leanings.

Of course, I’m curious to hear what you think. Would you stay at a company that promised it was getting greener, or leave one that wouldn’t? And once you have the money to do it, would you spend on green? Or do you, as Green Consumer panelist Joel Makower of Greener World Media, put it, think this is “just marketing.” (Which, to clarify, is an insult.) I got into a heated “debate” a while back with my 23-year-old sister — otherwise known as my Gen Y guinea pig — around this very question of the mainstreaming of green. While she was glad to hear more people express an interest in the environment, she said she couldn’t help feeling like green was rapidly gaining fad status. And since, to quote Heidi Klum, “In fashion, one day you’re in and the next you’re out,” she felt it might only be a matter of time before the hype died down and we were left just about where we started.

She’s still hoping to see us prove her wrong, but I wonder how many of you out there agree with her. And how many are cautiously more optimistic? And how many more are in the group that Makower brilliantly sketched out for us, people who find no irony in getting in their poorly tuned Escalades with under-inflated tires and turning on their cold engines to drive three miles to buy their favorite recycled toilet paper. He laughs — and hey, it’s funny, because we all know (or are) those people — but one does worry that this last camp of convenience is the one that most of us fall into, when it’s all said and done. (Not unlike the young women in this piece, for whom green is, apparently, a true fashion statement.)

So is it true, guys? Are we a bunch of fair-weather environmentalistas? Or are we, as I’d like to think, really going to make a change here, not just through our own actions, but by our ability to force the companies trying to hire and market to us to get with the green program?

*****

And in other news, if you haven’t already, check out our “Face of the future” gallery, part of this year’s Fortune 500 coverage. It was a labor of love for photographer Mackenzie Stroh and me, amassing images and interviews from more than 50 young people at 11 Fortune 500 companies to get a little insight into what life is really like for them. If you don’t mind paper, the magazine version is worth a look, too, with beautiful photographs and a more in-depth look at 29 of these hard-working — and I hope, high-rising — Yers. And when you’re done, do me a big favor and have an awesome weekend…

In this, the week of all things Green, I’d be remiss if — amidst the talk of CFL bulbs, organic farmers, and the like — I didn’t bring up that other green issue: Gen Yers. (Don’t act so surprised…)

At Fortune’s Brainstorm Green conference in Pasadena earlier this week, there was much high-level discussion amongst high-level executives, researchers, and activists of the problems one might expect — for instance, panels such as “Nuclear Power: A Debate” and “The $1 Trillion Carbon Market.” But what struck me was the way that Gen Yers crept into these green leaders’ conversations.

In “Wall Street and Climate Change,” Lehman Brothers managing director Theodore Roosevelt IV called green one of his best recruiting tools, saying that when Lehman goes to business schools, the younger generation asks what the company’s doing about environmental issues. And in “The Green Consumer: Myth or Reality,” Marc Mathieu, Coca-Cola’s SVP of global brand marketing and creative excellence (i.e. marketing guru), pointed out from the audience that — whatever the back and forth here about how to get consumers who say they’d rather buy green to actually do it — the next generation was going to take ownership of this movement. They’re not going to change when they get older, he said, citing his own teenagers, who are all members of Greenpeace or organizations like it.

To some extent, this is starting to emerge in the research, like this 2007 study, which found that 50% of Gen Y respondents said environmental messaging influenced their shopping behavior. (For the record, I’d like to think that older people would say the same, but the study didn’t go there.) It called to mind a recent conversation with a researcher in this field, who said that, as far as he could tell, the only thing preventing young people from going completely green was their obvious lack of that other kind of green — cash. As Yers’ incomes grew, he thought, we’d begin to see the impact of their green leanings.

Of course, I’m curious to hear what you think. Would you stay at a company that promised it was getting greener, or leave one that wouldn’t? And once you have the money to do it, would you spend on green? Or do you, as Green Consumer panelist Joel Makower of Greener World Media, put it, think this is “just marketing.” (Which, to clarify, is an insult.) I got into a heated “debate” a while back with my 23-year-old sister — otherwise known as my Gen Y guinea pig — around this very question of the mainstreaming of green. While she was glad to hear more people express an interest in the environment, she said she couldn’t help feeling like green was rapidly gaining fad status. And since, to quote Heidi Klum, “In fashion, one day you’re in and the next you’re out,” she felt it might only be a matter of time before the hype died down and we were left just about where we started.

She’s still hoping to see us prove her wrong, but I wonder how many of you out there agree with her. And how many are cautiously more optimistic? And how many more are in the group that Makower brilliantly sketched out for us, people who find no irony in getting in their poorly tuned Escalades with under-inflated tires and turning on their cold engines to drive three miles to buy their favorite recycled toilet paper. He laughs — and hey, it’s funny, because we all know (or are) those people — but one does worry that this last camp of convenience is the one that most of us fall into, when it’s all said and done. (Not unlike the young women in this piece, for whom green is, apparently, a true fashion statement.)

So is it true, guys? Are we a bunch of fair-weather environmentalistas? Or are we, as I’d like to think, really going to make a change here, not just through our own actions, but by our ability to force the companies trying to hire and market to us to get with the green program?

*****

And in other news, if you haven’t already, check out our “Face of the future” gallery, part of this year’s Fortune 500 coverage. It was a labor of love for photographer Mackenzie Stroh and me, amassing images and interviews from more than 50 young people at 11 Fortune 500 companies to get a little insight into what life is really like for them. If you don’t mind paper, the magazine version is worth a look, too, with beautiful photographs and a more in-depth look at 29 of these hard-working — and I hope, high-rising — Yers. And when you’re done, do me a big favor and have an awesome weekend…

A recent “Since You Asked” from Cary Tennis at Salon that’s a must-read. A question came in from someone who wanted to know if it was all right for his female co-worker — who is “a no-kids, no-drink, no-drugs, sings-in-the-choir-and-plays-the-piano kind of girl” — to wear a T-shirt to work bearing the words “Kitty Not Happy.” (Particularly after having just announced to the entire office that her marriage wasn’t working.)

If that weren’t enough, the letter ends with one of the more hilarious closings in recent memory: “Personally, if I were her husband and she went out of the house wearing this, or even wore it at home, come to think of it, I would want to give her a good slapping. Am I a bad person?” (Which is obviously not to say that spousal abuse is amusing, only that someone posing this hypothetical, phrased this way, in this day and age, is.)

That said, if I showed up at work in a “Kitty Not Happy” shirt, I’d want somebody to give me a good slapping. And the reader brings up a good general point. The twentysomethings of today’s business world, given the option, are less formal and more adventurous in their work attire. (I’m no exception today, with my chandelier earrings, flip-flops, and neon nail polish. It’s summer, and I’m a writer. What do you want from me? ) Even the T-shirt-under-a-blazer look can push boundaries, depending on what’s emblazoned across your chest.

But “Kitty Not Happy”? This seems extreme, even to me. Cary, on the other hand, waxes characteristically philosophical on the whole matter: “It is a good thing for problems such as this to come up in the workplace…. Otherwise, if in our daily lives we deny the humanity of our fellow workers, we are not living in the country we say we are living in. We are lying to ourselves.”

While I’m all for acknowledging the humanity of our fellow workers and whatnot, as far as I’m concerned, this is more a question of how “Kitty” wants her fellow workers to see her. At the moment, she wants to share and she probably thinks it’s cute. But how cute will it be when she’s having her evaluation or interviewing for a promotion and her boss asks, “How’s Kitty doing?”

It’s not fair, and as we all learned in high school, it isn’t nice to judge people this way. But it’s still the reality. And it’s also a question of respect, both getting and showing it. Just the way you wouldn’t have worn a tube top and cutoffs to English class lest your ancient teacher be offended, you wouldn’t want your boss to think that you had so little regard for him or her that you don’t mind talking Kitty in his or her vicinity. That’s the kind of recognition you don’t need.

Not to mention the other key issue — namely, telling your officemates all your romantic business. But we’ll have to come back to that. As for taking a sartorial stand in the office with my tees, I think I’ll stick to Wonder Woman and Thundercats, and leave Kitty’s emotional state out of it. What about you?

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And for those in need of a multimedia fix, a video editorial I just did for BetterManagement.com on this crazy little thing we call Gen Y.