Growing awareness of global challenges and increasing pressures on the farming sector, including the urgent requirement to rapidly cut greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, emphasize the need for sustainable production, which is particularly relevant for dairy production systems. Comparing dairy production systems across the three sustainability dimensions is a considerable challenge, notably due to the heterogeneity of production conditions in Europe. To overcome this, we developed an ex post multicriteria assessment tool that adopts a holistic approach across the three sustainability dimensions. This tool is based on the DEXi framework, which associates a hierarchical decision model with an expert perspective and follows a tree shaped structure; thus, we called it the DEXi-Dairy tool. For each dimension of sustainability, qualitative attributes were defined and organized in themes, sub-themes, and indicators. Their choice was guided by three objectives: (i) better describe main challenges faced by European dairy production systems, (ii) point out synergies and trade-offs across sustainability dimensions, and (iii) contribute to the identification of GHG mitigation strategies at the farm level. Qualitative scales for each theme, sub-theme, and indicator were defined together with weighting factors used to aggregate each level of the tree. Based on selected indicators, a list of farm data requirements was developed to populate the sustainability tree. The model was then tested on seven case study farms distributed across Europe. DEXi-Dairy presents a qualitative method that allows for the comparison of different inputs and the evaluation of the three sustainability dimensions in an integrated manner. By assessing synergies and trade-offs across sustainability dimensions, DEXi-Dairy is able to reflect the heterogeneity of dairy production systems. Results indicate that, while trade-offs occasionally exist among respective selected sub-themes, certain farming systems tend to achieve a higher sustainability score than others and hence could serve as benchmarks for further analyses.

人们日益认识到全球挑战和农业部门日益增加的压力，包括迅速减少温室气体（GHG）排放的迫切要求，强调了可持续生产的必要性，这对于乳制品生产系统尤其重要。比较三个可持续发展维度的乳制品生产系统是一项相当大的挑战，特别是由于欧洲生产条件的异质性。为了克服这个问题，我们开发了一种事后多标准评估工具，在三个可持续发展维度上采用整体方法。该工具基于DEXi框架，将分层决策模型与专家视角关联起来，遵循树形结构；因此，我们将其称为 DEXi-Dairy 工具。对于可持续性的每个维度，定性属性都按主题、子主题和指标进行了定义和组织。他们的选择以三个目标为指导：(i) 更好地描述欧洲乳制品生产系统面临的主要挑战，(ii) 指出可持续发展维度上的协同作用和权衡，(iii) 有助于确定欧洲乳制品生产系统的温室气体减排战略。农场级别。每个主题、子主题和指标的定性尺度以及用于聚合树的每个级别的权重因子一起定义。根据选定的指标，制定了一份农场数据要求列表来填充可持续性树。然后该模型在欧洲各地的七个案例研究农场进行了测试。 DEXi-Dairy 提出了一种定性方法，可以比较不同的投入并以综合方式评估三个可持续性维度。通过评估可持续发展维度的协同效应和权衡，DEXi-Dairy 能够反映乳制品生产系统的异质性。结果表明，虽然各自选定的子主题之间偶尔存在权衡，但某些农业系统往往比其他系统获得更高的可持续性得分，因此可以作为进一步分析的基准。