Comforting figures from Business Week describe a significant cultural shift.

Excerpt:

“Politically active and culturally aware, young entrepreneurs, like Coleman, are pursuing socially responsible business ventures in record numbers, say administrators at several top B-schools, including Babson College and the University of Arizona’s Eller School of Management. Defying tradition, students and recent grads are pitching business plans with dueling bottom lines—social and financial—and hoping investors will buy in.

Raman Chadha, director of Depaul University’s Coleman Entrepreneurship Center, attributes the trend to “a philosophical difference” in today’s youth. By and large, he says, U.S. college students are in tune with buzzed-about issues—rising fuel costs, global warming, a sluggish economy—and “they want to do something about them.”

Indeed, of 1,500 college students recently polled online by Alloy Media + Marketing, 90% plan to vote in the upcoming Presidential election, 71% say they’ve recycled within the past six months, and 41% prefer brands that are “eco-friendly” or “green,” like Burt’s Bees (CLX) and Yoplait (GIS). (All figures are significantly higher than in 2006.)

On average, budding entrepreneurs are even more socially involved, says Matt Mars, a “sustainability mentor” at Eller’s McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship. Already given to problem solving, they routinely turn personal concerns into profitable ventures, he says.”