The Wide Bay Burnett region is one of the most diverse regions in Queensland, boasting outstanding natural assets and resources, agricultural land, and unique townships.

The region’s agriculture, renewable energy, manufacturing and tourism industries are key contributors to Queensland’s economy.

As a cultural hub of the Darling Downs for more than 100 years, The Empire continues to serve our community with a focus on developing the arts in our region, delivering world class entertainment locally and telling the important stories.

What if we could turn our landfills into producers of renewable, clean energy – if the waste gas from our non-recyclable and non-reusable rubbish were a resource that had a second life?

That’s exactly what we’re doing in collaboration with the Toowoomba Regional Council. LGI is transforming the Toowoomba Waste Management Centre into a renewable energy superpower in the fight against climate change.

Our new renewable energy power station at this landfill is the first in Queensland to convert methane from landfill into electricity. Council’s most demanding energy user will now be mostly (90-100%) supplied with renewable power fuelled by waste gas the tip.

This new project at the Toowoomba Waste Management Centre is the first in Queensland to convert methane from a landfill into electricity to power a Council’s waste water treatment plant.

Toowoomba for Climate Action is playing our part to keep global average temperatures in a safe, liveable range, so that all humans, other species, and living systems can flourish.

Did you know that Toowoomba Regional Council was the first in Queensland to capture landfill methane for energy production?

Council has both reduced the emissions it is responsible for by 80% and now saves ratepayers over $1 million/year in energy savings!

Council’s most demanding energy user, the Wetalla Water Reclamation Facility, is now 90-100% supplied with free renewable power.

Dozens of other Councils have been inspired by Toowoomba Regional Council to do similar projects on their own landfills.

Our start-up economy is on the rise, with the Gold Coast ranked fifth in Australia for new business starts. Our innovative business culture positions us among the top six cities in Australia for lodging patent applications on a per capita basis.

Our support for start-ups has never been stronger with funding and grants designed to turn great ideas into commercial reality and take them to the world.

The Gold Coast is moving to establish our city as an entrepreneurial hub that is globally recognised as a place where knowledge, innovation and commercialisation are the key drivers of growth in the local economy.

Anyone can have a great idea or come up with an innovative solution to a problem. The hard part when you’re in a region can be getting access to the help you need to turn ideas into a business and a business into a global success story. Advance Queensland is helping Queenslanders to grow their business and build an innovation economy.

The Whitsunday Climate Innovation Hub, an initiative of the Whitsunday Regional Council, is aiming to improve the resilience of the Whitsunday region in the face of increasing climate change hazards, such as storm tide and coastal erosion. The Hub acts as a think-tank, bringing together national and international experts in law, climate adaptation, finance, insurance, tourism and agriculture, and provides climate information to the wider community.

The economy of the Greater Whitsunday region offers diverse investment opportunities with a proven track record for growth and prosperity. The Isaac region is home to the Bowen Basin, housing the largest coal mining deposits in Australia. Most of Queensland’s prime coking coal reserves are mined here, including the highest-grade metallurgical coal in the world.

Mackay is the centre of one of Australia’s most developed Mining, Equipment, Technology and Service (METS) industries and has enormous bio-futures potential. The Whitsundays is not only a world-class tourism destination, attracting more than a million visitors annually, but is a highly developed food producing region with sugar cane, horticulture and aquaculture.

Recycling is one of the easiest and most effective ways of reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill. Recyclable waste is a valuable resource. Recycling in the workplace is not only good for the environment but also makes good business sense.

Located on the Sunshine Coast, the Innovation Centre assists innovative and ambitious businesses at every stage across all industries. Typically, Innovation Centre members are looking to either launch a new venture or scale an existing venture in the mid to short term. Members join the Innovation Centre to access programs, training, mentoring and tailored advice aligned with their strategic needs.

Logan has developed a strategy and framework to strengthen innovation capability in the City of Logan. An innovation ecosystem is one that creates new ventures and companies that generate jobs at a faster pace and will play a significant role in the city’s economic development.

International defence primes have set up operations in Brisbane including Boeing, Northrop Gunman, Airbus, Rheinmetall, BAE Systems and Raytheon.

Rheinmetall’s Military Vehicle Centre of Excellence facility in Ipswich was delivered in partnership with the Queensland Government, bringing a new international defence prime contractor to our state, demonstrating how partnerships between government and industry create jobs and prosperity.

Brisbane excels in biomedical research, medical device manufacturing and clinical trials on a global scale, and is home to a network of world-class translational research centres and state-of-the-art hospitals and precincts.

This has created a critical mass of knowledge generation driving growth in high-value specialisations such as bio-medicine, vaccine research and drug discovery, oncology, clinical trials, ageing and chronic conditions, neurosciences, hospital management and e-health and human bionics.

Brisbane is home to world leaders in vaccine research. Researchers are connected by an ecosystem of more than 60 institutes - research hospitals, precincts, laboratories and other research organisations, including five drug discovery and development institutes, which together drive new product development:

 The University of Queensland (UQ) Diamantina Institute
 UQ Centre for Integrated Preclinical Drug Development (TetraQ)
 Queensland University of Technology's Institute of Biomedical Innovation
 UQ Centre for Clinical Research at RBWH
 QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute's Clinical trials and Biostatistics Units

Brisbane's researchers are addressing many of today's health and medical challenges including the development of new therapeutic approaches to treat neurodegenerative diseases.

The city boasts a critical mass of research centres that contribute to new product development including the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI), home to more than 450 scientists working to understand the neural circuits in the brain, and how dysfunction of these circuits can lead to an array of disorders such as ageing dementia.

Griffith University's National Centre for Neuroimmunology and Emerging Disease Research is a world-class research facility focussing on chronic fatigue syndrome.

Mater Research is a recognised leader in medical research. Our bench to bedside philosophy sees us working across Mater Health’s hospitals and health services, The University of Queensland, and the world-class Translational Research Institute (TRI).

Brisbane City Council is taking real and practical action to deliver a low-carbon and climate-resilient city for current and future residents.

In 2030, under a high emissions scenario, the climate of Brisbane will be more like the current climate of Bundaberg.

The greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming are generated from electricity, gas, transport, and waste produced in our city. They are also generated by food and agriculture, goods and services, and the resources that go into packaging, clothes and building materials. Too many greenhouse gas emissions act like a blanket around the earth, causing temperatures to rise.

To reduce greenhouse emissions, we need collective action by customers and businesses, commuters and transport companies, tenants and building owners, investors and government regulators. By taking action together, we can generate health and social benefits and reduce the cost of environmental impact.

We are already investing in renewable energy, urban forests, green buildings, waste innovation and in better pedestrian and cycling infrastructure. Through such creative initiatives, we can deliver better health for our community together with economic, social and environmental benefits.

Brisbane City Council has four resource recovery centres at Chandler, Ferny Grove, Nudgee and Willawong with recycling and waste facilities.

Brisbane households generate many different types of waste – from food and textile waste to e-waste and hazardous waste.

Clothes, footwear, sheets, towels, blankets and household textiles are part of our everyday lives. When it comes time to dispose of these items, there are a lot of things you can do to keep them out of landfill and in circulation.

In Australia, each person generates approximately 20 kilograms of e-waste each year. As a result, Australians have become the fourth highest generators of e-waste per capita. E-waste can be recycled. Just over half of all e-waste is collected in Australia, with 80% of this going to low-efficiency recycling. This means that valuable resources (such as lithium and cobalt) in e-waste are not reused.

Recyclables are taken to Visy’s Material Recovery Facility (MRF) and are sorted into different categories – paper, cardboard, plastics, glass and metal. Any non-recyclable items or ‘contaminants’ are detected by the sophisticated mechanical sorters and removed.

Council collects recycling with dedicated recycling trucks. In 2017-18, Council collected approximately 90,000 tonnes of paper, cardboard, glass, plastic and metals from Brisbane households which were then sorted and prepared for reprocessing into new products and packaging.

Recycling is one of the easiest ways to contribute to environmental issues by helping to conserve water, reduce energy use, reduce greenhouse emissions, reduce reliance on landfill and conserve natural habitats.

Brisbane is home to two main universities - The University of Queensland and the Queensland University of Technology. However, it also contains 10 campuses from six Australian universities, including Griffith University, Australian Catholic University, and CQUniversity.

Ranked in the world's top 50, The University of Queensland is one of Australia's leading research and teaching institutions.

Queensland University of Technology is a public research university located in the urban coastal city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. QUT is located on two campuses in the Brisbane area - Gardens Point and Kelvin Grove.

Griffith University is a public research university in South East Queensland on the east coast of Australia. Formally founded in 1971, Griffith opened its doors in 1975, introducing Australia's first degrees in environmental science and Asian studies.

Research institutions and organisations in Brisbane’s innovation and technology sector, covering both the life sciences and clean technology sector, include:
• Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
• Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation
• Syngenta Centre for Sugarcane Biofuel Development
• Institute for Glycomics
• Institute for Molecular Bioscience
• Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation
• Mater Research
• Queensland Brain Institute
• Baosteel-Australia Joint Research and Development Centre
• Cooperative Research Centre for Mining
• Queensland Centre for Advanced Technologies
• Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI)

Brisbane’s innovative capabilities are grounded in competitive business, world-class research and development, a highly skilled workforce, and leading education institutions.

At the heart of Brisbane’s innovation is its human capital – the people with the skills, knowledge and entrepreneurial know-how to transform ideas into products and services that will benefit businesses and the community, not only in Australia but the world.

Supported by the city’s world-class research and education facilities, Brisbane offers food and beverage product manufacturers a talented labour pool plus access to the latest food technology and innovation research.

The food and beverage, grocery, and fresh produce manufacturing industry is worth $114 billion to the Australian economy. Brisbane is fast becoming a hub for alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage manufacturing in Australia.

Queensland’s resource boom presents the single most significant opportunity for the Brisbane economy. There are currently around 177 resource companies headquartered in Brisbane. Major global players include Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, Santos, Peabody Energy, Xstrata, Vale and Bechtel Mining and Metals Division. More giant global resource companies will locate key operations here if Brisbane grows as a global centre for resource industry technologies and services.

• Rio Tinto - Global energy headquarters, Australian coal headquarters and global centre for aluminium research and development
• BHP Billiton/Mitsubishi Alliance - Global coal headquarters
• Aurizon – Global headquarters
• Anglo American - Australian headquarters
• Adani Mining – Australian headquarters
• Bechtel – Global metals and minerals headquarters
• Komatsu – Australian mining headquarters
• Peabody Coal - Australian headquarters
• Sandvik Mining and Construction – Australasian headquarters
• Talisman Energy – Oceania headquarters
• Thiess – Global headquarters
• Vale – Global coal headquarters
• Xstrata Zinc – Australian headquarters