Built Environment Connective pushes system of systems approach
Established in 2024, Built Environment Connective is a UK-based group focused on advancing systems thinking in the built and natural environment (and its leadership group includes nima ambassador Mark Enzer). Its vision is “a built environment whose explicit purpose is to enable people and nature to flourish together for generations“.
It argues that our focus must shift from creating the built environment to the outcomes enabled by it. We must explicitly recognise that the built and natural environments are complex and interconnected systems that are essential for our wellbeing. And improving outcomes for people and nature depends on coordinating the built environment as a whole, not just as individual parts or projects.
‘Connect to change’
On 3 July 2025 at Imperial College in London, Built Environment Connective launched Connect to Change, a call to unlock the value of systems thinking in the built environment. The paper sets out practical actions that individuals and organisations can take, and recommends next steps for government and industry.
Nima is looking to engage further with the group, particularly as – like nima – Connect to Change recognises, among other things, that:
The information required to run the built environment is poorly connected.
We miss opportunities to gain more value from our existing assets due to inadequate data management, limited interoperability and insufficient information flows across organisation and sector boundaries.
An information platform
Among the immediate steps that people and organisations can take, the Built Environment Connective paper recommends common frameworks and methodologies – in particular (at least from an information management perspective):
Platform: Develop an information platform with active communication. Connect people to tools, methodologies, case studies and guidance.
This is very aligned with nima’s thinking. For example, our GIIG think tank advanced the Information Management Platform (IMP) approach in a 2022 guidance document, building on work undertaken with the Environment Agency (see 2022 case study). More recently, as part of its Information Management Initiative (IMI) with the Construction Leadership Council, nima has promoted key principles that include recognising the whole life purpose of information and data, and taking a common, consistent and data-centric approach. And, as part of the IMI, nima is also developing the IMI Framework (expanding and building upon the previous UK BIM Framework, a resource recommended by the UK Government’s Construction Playbook and TIP Roadmap to 2030) to help support digital transformation across the built and managed environment.
