In what may be the ultimate manifestation of the fallacy of millennials as a force for transformative change, a survey by The Shelton Group finds, unsurprisingly, millennials are less likely to personally take actions, such as recycling and adjusting their thermostat, to help the planet, but expect others to do the heavy lifting -- namely corporations

Because to millennials, it's apparently better to signal your virtue, than to actually be virtuous

The Shelton Group's 2016 EcoPulse study found that Millennials fall behind others when it comes to the easier green activities: Only 33 percent of millennials say they adjust the thermostat to save energy (vs. 48 percent of all Americans) and just 34 percent recycled paper, plastic bottles, and aluminum cans (vs. 46 percent overall). And only 37% of millennials bring their own bags when shopping, versus 50% of the overall population

This despite the fact that the survey found 76 percent of millennials claim they are, "somewhat to extremely concerned about the impact climate change will have on their quality of life during their lifetimes."

The Shelton Group said that the report also found that most millennials aren't particularly concerned about certain sustainable habits. Asked, "Which, if any, of the following habits would you be embarrassed about if people found you had or didn't have them?"

• 41 percent said tossing trash out the car window

• 39 percent said wasting food

• 28 percent said wasting water

• 25 percent said not recycling things

One response to the survey stated, "Environmentally/socially responsible companies take care of these things for me (which frees me up to focus on other things)." (emphasis added).

In our day, we called that passing the buck.

Not that these results shock us in any way, since the millennial generation (or at least as its portrayed by the fawning media) is unquestionably rife with hypocrisy, consistently rewarding companies, even anointing them as favorites, which stand opposite to millennials' stated beliefs (living wage, worker safety, sustainability, etc). See working conditions at Tesla, Amazon, Uber, various Apple suppliers, etc. (as we more extensively chronicled here). These are not companies that practice social justice with respect to their labor, yet because they preach social justice, it's OK

Why do we waste ink (or bytes) on the obvious shortcomings of the millennials' faux eco-consciousness? Well, remember that, so sure of the disruptive force that could be captured from millennials, NRG tried, unsuccessfully, to tap into the market, which it had called, "the most important constituency". Although NRG certainly still has various sustainable offerings as part of an overall energy management approach, it was forced to jettison several of its "hip", millennial-friendly business lines (EV charging, home solar installation) because millennials weren't showing up to support them (Can't someone else do it?)

If you think millennials really care about everything they shout about, think again, and don't build a business plan around it

-- By Paul Ring