Most presenters at AlwaysOn’s GoingGreen conference agreed that we are just beginning to scratch the surface of green opportunities out there, whether referring to distributed power generation or water innovation. And there are many, many smart people scratching, scraping and digging away at the opportunities.

While many of the presented ideas were longer term solutions or are many years away from commercialization, there were several that addressed short-term solutions with straightforward innovations that can be implemented within a year. Cheers.

I bumped into a friend at the conference whose company, ATDynamics, is bringing a product to the long-haul tractor trailer market called the TrailerTail™. It mounts on the rear of a standard 53-foot trailer to reduce the drag created at the back of the trailer, thus reducing fuel consumption by 3-10%. The product pays for itself in a year, enhances vehicle performance and doesn’t interfere with normal trucking operations. With two million long-haul trailers on the US highways today, this seemingly straightforward device could reduce US oil dependence by billions of gallons annually.

Yes, it sounds like a sales pitch. And it should. In light of the major issues many green CEO’s surfaced at the conference, I was refreshed and excited to hear about companies like ATDynamics that are making fast, tangible differences that people can and want to implement today. Oh, and did I mention that my friend is a sick athlete, an environmentalist, and a total babe?