Energy intensity and resource productivity are widespread indicators of energy and material intensity in European institutions. However, they present important flaws when used to characterize the factors affecting the energy and material performance of an economy: they neglect the effects of the openness and differences in the structure of the economies. In this study we propose the Transformation Matrix (TM) as an alternative accounting framework based in Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) to analyze the energy and material metabolism, including the generation of value added. The TM extend the accounting of the End-use Matrix (EUM) to flows out of human control as water and emissions, which add relevant information about the nexus from a biophysical approach. An example is provided with the analysis of the “Paper, pulp and print” subsector in Europe. Countries specialized in the production of pulp and paper are net exporters with high energy and water metabolic rates. On the contrary, countries importing pulp and paper and producing paper products generate value added with lower energy and water metabolic rates and less GHG per hour of work in the sector.

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