BMF was established as an independent non-profit think-tank to undertake, translate, and leverage social-behavioural economic research at the inter-individual level of sustainable design and engineering communication and decision-making—for professional practitioners and policymakers in architecture, built environment planning, design, construction, management—to improve sustainability outcomes from projects.

Fronted by practicing architect, Dr Richard Kulczak-Dawkins, PhD MAphil BArch ADipSustArch DipTeach DipPsych DipEnvSci MIEnvSci ACIAT RIBA RegArchUK, and supported by a small and growing network of architects, professionals and academics, BMF was created to enact behaviour change in architecture and construction, fuelled by a climate action and social change agendas.

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Below is a character sketch of the BMF initiative, comprised of:

• Vision
• Mission
• Strategy
• Expertise

as well as links to read more about the underpinning research. Interested in getting involved in helping, extending, or applying the work either within or beyond the built environment? We’d love to hear from you! Get in touch.

Please feel free to download and browse our 2022-2025 Strategy, outlining the detail of our current mission, strategy and management of the initiative.

To download a copy, please Click Here, or click on the cover image.

Vision

The pathways to achieve this are complex and challenging, but achievable if we act now.  These pathways can be identified as four core strands of a cable — interwoven, but uniquely identifiable.

ONE: Contextualising sustainability. 

A world free of ecological degradation, poverty and oppression, and obscene economic imbalance is a world filled with ecological sustainability, fairness, health, mutual support, and economic justice and balance — as defined by individuals and groups in our own contexts — but accounting for impacts across contexts.

TWO: Recognising consequences. 

When people understand that their decisions have consequences and impacts beyond the immediate and/or near-term contexts, we can then work meaningfully towards minimising and ultimately eliminating harmful impact.

THREE: Leveraging science.

Human problems benefit from human-centred solutions to help overcome the cognitive limitations and biases inherent in our species.  Leveraging behavioural insights and decision science can embed foundational motivations for valuing sustainability as a worthwhile approach, goal, and state. 

FOUR: Valuing sustainability.

Moving from ecological, economic, and social sustainability as contested and decontextualised concepts, to the evaluation of sustainability as being ecologically, economically, and socially valuable thus unleashes value-based thinking and motivation which is more robust, wider-scoped, and outcomes-focused. 

The methods available to crystallise this vision are finite but worthwhile; this then provides the impetus for the BMF mission.

Mission

Based on this vision, the BMF Mission is to help solve ongoing built environment sustainability problems through practical, evidence-based solutions — these solutions synthesise design approaches and physical technologies with management approaches and analogue social technologies. 

Aims

The aim is to help individuals, projects, and organisations make better, more socially- and ecologically-beneficial decisions towards more Sustainable Futures.

Strategy

The strategy to achieve this mission is fourfold:

1. Translating research into practice through rigorous and accessible formats.
2. Applying practical, evidence-based insights and innovations in built environment organisations, business processes, and projects.
3. Developing project professionals’ and stakeholders’ core competencies.
4. Publishing materials to assist in your training and knowledge-seeking goals towards sustainability.

Expertise

Based on nearly a decade of applied research and development, this work and the research that informs it has been devised, designed, conducted, and assessed by highly experienced experts — and in some cases world-leading — in architecture and construction engineering; design and project management; sustainability management; values-based management and communication (including frames and framing); interpersonal decision-making and its’ processes; behavioural economics; and decision psychology to name a few. The work both builds from and extends the work of decades of previous world-class, Nobel Prize-winning research and applications in these areas and fields.