Neil May was an inspiration and fellow traveller to the Sustainable Development Foundation (SDF), constantly striving to improve the performance of some part of the property and construction industry and gathering people around him to help make the necessary changes happen.

Neil had an extraordinary gift for bringing people together and inspiring them to act collectively. He spoke with enthusiasm and passion which inspired people to act, but he also had great understanding and knowledge of the problems that needed addressing, which gave honesty and integrity to his aims and campaigns. Read more

Neil’s work

Organisations

Neil was closely involved in the development of the following organisations:

Neil also worked closely with the UCL Energy Institute.

Writings

‘Is the primary challenge how to think, not what to do? Open up the intellectual and cultural space.’

Neil May

He authored or was instrumental in the following published papers:

Neil’s legacy

The Neil May Lecture Series

The Neil May Lecture Series, inspired by Neil’s memory, focuses on restorative sustainability, net positive development and social justice. The inaugural lecture was held on 2 July 2021. We welcomed guests Prof. Karel Williams and Prof. Julie Froud from the University of Manchester’s Business School, who spoke about the foundational economy. A recording of the lecture can be found here.

The second Neil May Memorial Lecture took place on 20 September 2022 at UCL in London.  Josh Ryan Collins (UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose) discussed the UK and wider high-income economy housing affordability crisis, and the recording is available to watch here.

The 2024 event in the series took place on 21 March, and interrogated mould, damp and health inequalities, with contributions from Dr Andy Knox, Prof. Sani Dimitroulopoulou and Dr Valentina Marincioni. The recording can be watched here.

The Neil May Award

The Neil May Award has been established by the ASBP to recognise individuals who have made a significant contribution to sustainable building through their work. The first recipient of the award, Richard Oxley, was described as one of Neil’s ‘musketeers’, amplifying the healthy building practices that Neil was keen for the built environment to embrace. 

Tributes to Neil

Neil May was a charismatic leader of our industry, a powerhouse of ideas who challenged and inspired everyone he worked with. The theme of his work was better buildings – not just better functionally or architecturally but also socially, culturally, ecologically and philosophically. He taught us to think about what buildings are for, what their place is in our heritage and society, the role they should fulfil in our future, and how they should perform.
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It is rare, in a world of ever-increasing specialism, to encounter someone with the multiple talents that Neil had. It is even rarer to find such courage and integrity, which shone through in everything that he did.
Read More from the STBA
Neil gave everything he had to his various activities, often to the detriment of his own health, requiring regular battery re-charges at home or at Quarr Abbey. He was also a restless spirit, which would lead him to move on to the next campaign, once there was enough support and structure in place to continue without him, sometimes even before! Very few people have given so much energy for so little personal return and he had an inspiring effect on SDF staff, who all have their own stories to tell about the significance of Neil’s influence.
Read more from the SDF
Neil cared deeply about people, places and buildings. Through his energy, enthusiasm and intellectual rigour he made profound changes to our understanding of buildings as systems. It is easy in the construction industry to maintain a narrow focus on technical matters, from energy efficiency to the role of moisture in buildings. But Neil went far beyond this, caring deeply about people and what it is to be truly human. His understanding of sustainability was both fully grounded in technical understanding of his subject, but ultimately and much more importantly, it was also grounded in what he took to be our true potential as human beings.
Read more from the AECB