The Sunshine Coast Council has developed a Regional Economic Development Strategy to guide the development of the region for the next 20 years. This focuses on seven high value industry sectors and one of these is Clean Technologies.
Our region has already been recognised as a hub for clean technologies in Queensland.
Cleantech, or environmentally friendly industries, are characterised as often small to medium sized businesses which are locally owned and based upon a technology which is good for the environment.
This might be a product or a process or a system, like water quality, alternative energy, building design and buildings products, waste technologies and efficient processing and management initiatives.
In our region we have proven to be very good adopters of Cleantech products. In everyday homes think of the double flush toilet, LED lighting, and recycling bins, and we have one of the highest uptakes of solar power.
Both our residential and our commercial built environments have good track records in responsible environmental design. The Sunshine Coast has the only incorporated Cleantech Industries Association in Queensland.
Industries which can be classed as purely Cleantech only account for about 1.5% of regional industry and currently employ about 1770 people, but nowadays nearly all industries employ some technologies that are good for the environment.
There are many good examples to show that if innovators or inventors can get their Cleantech products accepted in Australian markets then they will also be enormously successful in Asian, American and European markets, which is why this is classed as such an important industry sector for the future.