As Government comes to terms with the challenges we face in our built environment, it is clear that achieving the Missions requires systems thinking to be integral to the policy agenda. 

Getting more from what we’ve got

In order to enable sustainable growth and address society’s evolving needs within the context of significant investment constraints, there is an increasing imperative to get more from what we have already built – our existing built environment.  Getting this right requires long-term, strategic and joined-up policy, and it promises improved environmental, social and economic outcomes.  Getting it wrong threatens society’s resilience, security and sustainability, and it will result in higher costs.  Real value comes from joined-up thinking, not from cutting resources. 

Joined-up systems; joined-up challenges

Our built environment consists of interdependent systems that provide essential services for society.  It includes our economic and social infrastructure, together with their interfaces with our natural environment, and it is the host for other essential systems that operate within it, including the financial, health, education and justice systems.  The built environment is becoming ever more complex as we digitalise and decarbonise it, thereby creating more connections and interdependencies.  The greatest challenges that we face are also interrelated: addressing climate change, providing resilience, delivering infrastructure equity, creating a circular economy and increasing biodiversity all demand systems-based solutions.  In short, none of the big challenges facing the UK can be solved without systems thinking.   And we do not have the luxury of time.  However, the way we run the built environment is not set up to meet these challenges because of some crucial disconnections: 

Siloed organisations: The people and institutions that regulate and operate the built environment are not well connected, and there is no body that provides a joined-up overview.  The built environment falls under the jurisdiction of multiple government departments and its governance is not designed to handle complexity

Siloed information: The data required to run the built environment is not well connected.  There is poor interoperability and limited information flowing across organisation or sector boundaries, and there is no common data sharing infrastructure.  All of these are essential enablers for understanding the systems and for facilitating connected governance. 

We therefore need an approach that can address how the real world works, with all its complexities and dependencies. We must face the systemic challenges and fix the silos in governance and information in order to improve performance and enable better outcomes

Advancing systems thinking in the built environment

The key value proposition of systems thinking in the built environment is that it delivers better outcomes for people and nature at lower overall cost.  A systems approach brings together four key and complementary perspectives: 

• People – understanding of interactions among people, at the personal, group and organisational levels, and across other elements of a system. 

• Systems – addressing complex and uncertain real-world problems, involving highly interconnected technical and social elements that typically produce emergent properties and behaviours. 

• Design – focusing on improvement by identifying the right problem to solve, creating a range of possible solutions and refining best practice to deliver appropriate outcomes. 

• Risk – managing risk by identifying in a timely manner threats and opportunities in the system, assessing associated risks and managing necessary change. 
  
  

These interrelated perspectives provide a route to improving outcomes for both people and nature by better understanding built and natural systems and then intervening more effectively.   

Systems thinking provides a mechanism for exploring and negotiating desired outcomes and their inherent trade-offs systemically. Yet today there are no effective frameworks or incentives to support discussions that are outcomes-focused, systems-based and community-enabled. 

Crucially, systems thinking is about mapping connections and addressing organisational and informational silos.  This includes the vertical disconnections that span from policymakers through regulators and owner-operators to the ultimate end users.   It also includes the horizontal disconnections across infrastructure sectors such as energy, transport, telecommunications, water and flood protection, and waste management. It helps address the divide between the capital expenditure (CAPEX) and the operational expenditure (OPEX) of the built environment. 

A mission-oriented approach must align public and private efforts towards common objectives to deliver transformative change. It demands collaboration across different sectors to achieve societal, environmental and economic outcomes. We must build a common language for meaningful dialogue and co-create tangible recommendations for positive systems change across our built environment. 

The benefits

Systems thinking in the built environment offers a multitude of benefits, including: 

• enabling missions to be achieved more cost-efficiently 

• improving the performance of the built environment, for example improved demand/capacity balancing between the transport and energy sector 

• providing savings, for example the £280bn pa that has been estimated for digital twins impact on urban planning [Reference] 

• improving services, for example health and social care 
  
  

The way forwards

Government has a great opportunity to unlock the value of systems thinking in the built environment.  There is already broad agreement on the need, so the focus must be on ‘the How’.  We must connect leading systems thinkers across government, industry, academia, and civil society.   

Change is now an urgent necessity.  It will become impossible to meet society’s evolving needs unless we address the connected challenges we face. 

Join us in shaping a built environment that delivers better outcomes for people and nature.