If being green is part of a company's social-responsibility reputation, it could certainly help attract future corporate leaders. According to "Corporate Reputation Watch," a research report by public relations consultancy Hill & Knowlton, almost 75 percent of MBA students said reputation plays an extremely important or very important role in considering where to work after graduating. About 70 percent said a company's financial performance was extremely or very important in the decision.

And a 2007 survey of almost 2,500 adults by research firm Harris Interactive found that a third would prefer to work for a company with good environmental practices.

Lizz Pellet, an organizational culture consultant and CEO of Emerge International, writes, "We all expect companies like Whole Foods, Patagonia, Ben & Jerry's, Land's End and Timberland to be leading the green brigade."

She recommends looking at brands with that type of reputation to see how they market to potential employees. For example, Timberland's mission says, "We love every minute we spend outdoors, and we work hard to create things that make that experience better in every way." Whole Foods' Web site says, "We believe in a virtuous circle entwining the food chain, human beings and Mother Earth: each is reliant upon the others..."

Pellet adds that Gen Y and college graduates are concerned about how behavior impacts the environment.

Big Bowl employees are proud of the company's environment efforts.

He tells about a recent group of 10 applicants, eight of whom applied because they had read about some of the chain's green efforts. "They thought they wanted to work for a company that had these types of beliefs," he says. "What we found is, not only do we feel proud about it, but the people who are working for us, or that want to work for us, also believe in these things. And it's become a real nice recruitment tool for us."

Michael Oshman, founder of the Boston-based nonprofit Green Restaurant Association, points to the added bonus that staff morale improves and employees are more productive in restaurants making green strides. "And in an economy like this," he adds, "the better employees you have, the more you can do to keep those employees being more productive, the more financially beneficial it is."