Up till now, most consumers have been fans of green initiatives but they have operated under two general rules that limit their acceptance of environmentally sustainable products.

Drivers are beginning to put less mileage on their cars by making fewer and shorter trips. They are also keeping their cars longer. While few, if any, Americans have decided to do without cars, less is becoming a guiding spirit for many motorists: less driving, less replacement, and even, perhaps, less traffic on the roads.

Nowhere is the freedom that we enjoy as Americans expressed more than in election campaigns. Our campaigns are long, beginning with primaries, and hard-fought. The current campaign

Consumer demand for environmentally responsible (“green”) products and services continues to increase, and manufacturers, retailers and service providers are leaping onto the green bandwagon. A number of issues surrounding consumers’ attitudes towards green products remain unclear, however.

Last year, over half of American households said they were cutting down on the amount of driving they do to save gasoline. Many used the money they saved on gas to buy apparel and food. While retailers attribute slowdowns in sales to the high price of gasoline, by driving less American households are, in fact, supporting retail sales. A national survey conducted in June of this year by Leo J. Shapiro and Associates found households reporting driving on average nearly fifteen thousand miles in 2006 in the newest car that they owned. Based on their driving for the first half of the year, in 2007 they expect to cut that total to eleven thousand miles, a decline of 27%. A recent study conducted by Chain Store Age found 52% of households saying that they were doing less driving to accomplish their shopping by bundling trips and avoiding long distance trips to stores.