Educational initiatives Pathways to Cleaner Production in the Americas II: Application of a competency model to experiential learning for sustainability education Sarah McPherson a, * , Nada M. Anid b , Weslynne S. Ashton c , Marta Hurtado-Martín c , Nasrin Khalili c , Marta Panero b a New York Institute of Technology, School of Education, Wisser Library, 3rd Floor, Old Westbury, NY 10568, United States b New York Institute of Technology, School of Engineering and Computing Sciences,1855 Broadway, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10023, United States c Illinois Institute of Technology, Stuart School of Business, 10 W 35th St,18th Floor, Chicago, IL 60616, United States article info Article history: Received 1 December 2015 Received in revised form 11 June 2016 Accepted 22 June 2016 Available online 28 June 2016 Keywords: Experiential learning Cleaner production Sustainability education Global partnership Industry competency model University/industry partnership abstract A multinational partnership called Pathways to Cleaner Production in the Americas linked faculty from seven Latin American universities and two U.S. universities to facilitate the transition to sustainability in the Americas by strengthening higher education institutions' capacity for educating young professionals in cleaner production and sustainable development, and assisting micro, small, and medium enterprises in understanding and implementing cleaner production and sustainable development strategies in their respective organizations. The ultimate outcome was to develop a workforce armed with new knowledge, skills and attitudes toward sustainability through cleaner production. To achieve the twin goals of the project, an experiential learning approach was developed to provide students with opportunities for applying knowledge of cleaner production and developing workplace competencies by working directly with micro, small, and medium enterprises to identify opportunities for cleaner production, under the supervision of faculty and cleaner production consultants. This paper examines the competencies developed from experiential learning in practicum courses and internships using CareerOneStop, an Industry Competency Model, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration. Online surveys were developed and administered to university students to understand whether they had mastered various competencies and comparisons were made across the seven partner institutions. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The Pathways to Cleaner Production in the Americas project was a multinational partnership aimed at facilitating the transition to sustainability in the Americas by 1) strengthening higher educa- tion institutions' capacity for educating young professionals in cleaner production (CP) and sustainable development (SD), 2) assisting micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in un- derstanding and implementing CP and SD strategies in their respective organizations, and 3) creating a virtual forum to pro- mote collaboration across partner institutions, countries and the public (Ashton et al., 2016). The project was a collaboration between industry and higher education institutions in eight countries (Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru and the United States of America) aimed to develop educational curriculum and programs that address CP and SD at the undergraduate and graduate levels, while assessing CP opportunities and delivering sustainability benefits in MSMEs. Faculty from nine universities (two in the U.S.), along with CP/SD consultants from each of the partner countries, collaborated on the development of curriculum, practicum courses and internship experiences to prepare students to gain the compe- tencies required for the promotion of CP and SD in each country. The anticipated outcome was creation of an experiential learning approach for generating a workforce capable of facilitating and implementing sustainable development. This project also aimed to strengthen CP education in * Corresponding author. E-mail address: smcphers@nyit.edu (S. McPherson). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Cleaner Production journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.06.138 0959-6526/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Journal of Cleaner Production 135 (2016) 907e918