Educational initiatives Bridging universities and industry through cleaner production activities. Experiences from the Cleaner Production Center at the University of Cienfuegos, Cuba Juan J. Cabello Eras a, d , Alexis Sagastume Guti  errez a, * , Dunia García Lorenzo a , Juan B. Cogollos Martínez a , Luc Hens b , Carlo Vandecasteele c a Universidad de Cienfuegos, Carretera a Rodas kil ometro 4, Cuatro caminos, Cienfuegos, Cuba b Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Mol, Belgium c Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Leuven, de Croylaan 46, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium d Universidad de la Costa, Calle 58 # 55 e 66, Barranquilla, Atl antico, Colombia article info Article history: Received 10 June 2014 Received in revised form 23 November 2014 Accepted 23 November 2014 Available online 2 December 2014 Keywords: Universities International collaboration Aid for development Cleaner production abstract The involvement of universities is crucial to identify how Cleaner Production strategies are formed in practice so that companies integrate sustainability into their strategies. This paper discusses the expe- rience of establishing and operating the Cleaner Production Center at the University of Cienfuegos. From 2008 to 2011, the University of Cienfuegos, the Free University of Brussels (Belgium) and the University of Leuven (Belgium) implemented a project, financially supported by the Flemish Interuniversity Council (Belgium) allowing establishing a Cleaner Production Center at the University of Cienfuegos. This first project was followed by a second University of Cienfuegos e University of Leuven one. So far, the collaboration allowed to establish a master program on Cleaner Production that constitutes a bridge between the university and the production and service sector, allowing to promote and implement cleaner production strategies. 34 master students graduated during two graduations and a third one is ongoing. Among the most important results of the master thesis were the yearly reduction of the emission of 60 000 t/a of carbon dioxide equivalent and of the electricity consumption by 400 MWh/a at a cement plant. Research activities on Cleaner Production were upgraded through the collaboration resulting in several publications in peer-reviewed journals with impact factor. This type of NortheSouth cooperation aided establishing and developing the center, by transferring expertise and experience and by providing part of the necessary funding which is difficult to raise by developing economies. This case study offers an interesting practice example about developing academic (training, research) values on Cleaner Production. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Anthropogenic environmental impacts raised the public envi- ronmental awareness during the last decades. Several efforts addressed these environmental issues at the global, regional or local scale (Dodds et al., 2012). However, turning the measures mitigating the environmental impacts into political actions proved difficult; among others, because stakeholders and the public in general have only an intuitive perception and a superficial under- standing of the environmental issues (Raivio, 2011). Aiming at handling long term environmental problems, the concept of sustainable development (SD) came at the surface of wide attention (WCED, 1987). Sustainability necessitates the pro- cess of SD principles in government policies. In this integration, higher education institutions (HEIs) play a major role, as they contributes to the education of decision-makers, entrepreneurs, and academics (Almeida et al., 2013; Lozano, 2010; Lozano et al., 2013; Hesselbarth and Schaltegger, 2014). Moreover, the research and innovation of these institutions, to the extent they are devel- oped in partnership with regional stakeholders, contribute to sus- tainability and yield mutual benefits (Karatzoglou, 2013; Mader et al., 2013). Some authors (Chatterton and Goddard, 2000; Gunasekara, 2006; Peer and Stoeglehner, 2013) consider a 3rd mission for universities, which focuses on wider and more adaptive * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ53 43516590. E-mail address: asagastume@ucf.edu.cu (A. Sagastume Guti errez). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Cleaner Production journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.11.063 0959-6526/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Journal of Cleaner Production 108 (2015) 873e882