The Use of Performance Indicators for Analysis of Resource Efficiency Measures

The objective of this research is to derive production performance indicators for comparison of industrial symbiosis initiatives and cleaner production measures. Normalization by production amounts is not applicable for multi-company industrial symbiosis systems. Therefore normalization by cumulative added value and the determination of cumulative intensity indicators is proposed. To demonstrate this approach, the cumulative energy and CO2 intensity for two alternative brewer's spent grain reuse scenarios are determined. The results of cumulative intensity indicators are higher for the biogas alternative, suggesting that the use brewer's spent grain for baked goods production should be further investigated. These results provide decision-making support for the selection of the better measures in context on the whole life cycle.