© 2024 Author(s). This is an open access article licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 166 ARCHIWUM INŻYNIERII PRODUKCJI PRODUCTION ENGINEERING ARCHIVES 2024, 30(2), 166-181 PRODUCTION ENGINEERING ARCHIVES ISSN 2353-5156 (print) ISSN 2353-7779 (online) Exist since 4 th quarter 2013 Available online at https://pea-journal.eu The impact of cleaner production strategy on Sustainable supply chain performance Sadiq Kamel Obaid Al-Humairi 1* , Mahmood Fahad Abd Ali 1 , Ali Abdulhassan Abbas 2 1 University of Kerbala/ College of Administration and Economics/ Department of Business Administration, Iraq; sadeq.k@s.uokerbala.edu.iq; Kamlsadq86@gmail.com (SKOA); mahmod.fahad@uokerbala.edu.iq (MFAA) 2 University of Kerbala/ College of Administration and Economics/ Department of Accounting, Iraq; Fuhrer313@gmail.com, ali.abd.alhassan@uokerbala.edu.iq *Correspondence: Fuhrer313@gmail.com Article history Received 24.01.2024 Accepted 08.04.2024 Available online 31.05.2024 Abstract There is a paradigm shift occurring in organizations towards sustainable production through cleaner production strategies. This cleaner production concept has been proven to be cost-effective, result- oriented, environment-savvy and provides the organizations a cutting edge over their counterparts. However, there is a lack of awareness about cleaner production practices in Iraq while the current study analyzed one of the most important factories in Iraq for sugar production to understand the factors required for successful application of cleaner production strategy and the challenges to be expected. In this study, the researchers followed an exploratory research approach. For this study, a questionnaire was designed, validated and distributed randomly among 700 potential respondents working in various departments of the organization under study. Out of the total responses, 482 responses were considered and SEM-PLS analysis was conducted. The cleaner production strategies were applied through nine dimensions and the relationship between the performance of the factory and sustainable supply chain was found to be prominent. With a few limitations such as the choice of a single factory, weak rela- tionship between the variables identified from hypothesis testing, the study is a first-of-its-kind in this domain, especially in dealing with sugar refineries. Based on the outcomes, policy recommendations were made to the decision makers and the government. It can be concluded that the application of modern technologies and effective resource management can help in achieving the goal of the study. Keywords Cleaner Production Strategy, Sustainable Supply Chain. DOI: 10.30657/pea.2024.30.16 1. Introduction Recently, business organizations have started realizing that the current production and consumption patterns are unsus- tainable and the resources are bound to deplete sooner (Chungyalpa, 2021). So, it has become the duty of every or- ganization to strategize for the integration of cleaner produc- tion strategies into their operations and pay attention to achieving a sustainable supply chain. The core components of this strategy include focusing on environmental considera- tions, development of long-term strategic plans for the imple- mentation of cleaner production and sustainable supply chain and the integration of environmental considerations into the organization’s core operations (Gamage et al., 2023). Perhaps, the most important tool to achieve this integration is the ac- quisition of green technologies that can improve environmen- tal performance following the policies and frameworks. Such technologies have been developed by various industrial organ- izations and are extensively applied without legislative pres- sures. This method of dealing the environmental issues is rel- atively new and has resorted to highly industrialized countries so far. The studies conducted in such countries proved that cleaner production is an effective and efficient method in terms of benefits reaped from protecting the environment (Chen et al., 2023; Gamage, Arachchige and Godakanda, 2023; Kumar et al., 2024), Abd Ali et al., 2020). Despite this, the extent of negligence in applying cleaner production strat-