Resource use efficiency: Developing a generic framework for protein production systems and its application on dairy and fish

Resource use efficiency has become increasingly important as the global demand for natural resources continues to grow, necessitating innovative and sustainable utilization strategies. Despite the availability of tools to quantify resource use and environmental impacts, an integrated assessment of total resource use efficiency remains underdeveloped. Addressing this gap, particularly within the context of the protein transition from animal-based to plant-based sources, this work introduces a novel resource efficiency framework. This framework advances current environmental assessments by enabling the precise calculation of efficiency in protein production processes and process chains based on comprehensive resource utilization metrics. It uniquely incorporates the nature of process inputs, including their renewability and circularity, and supports both foreground and life cycle perspectives at the process and process chain levels. To demonstrate its applicability, two case studies—fish and dairy production systems—are evaluated using exergy and mass analyses.