The award-winning environmental not-for-profit, City to Sea, has announced and welcomed their new “Sea-EO”, Harriet Bosnell. City to Sea campaign to stop plastic pollution at source and are best known for its campaigns including; Refill, Plastic Free Periods, and most recently, Cut the Cutlery which saw some of the most polluting single-use plastics banned across the UK.
Harriet takes over from the Founder of City to Sea, Natalie Fee, the figurehead of many City to Sea campaigns and author of the best-selling book “How to Save the World for Free”. Over the last seven years, Natalie’s overseen the organisation grow from seed funding in 2015 as part of the European Green Capital award in Bristol to become a global campaigning organisation running multiple, high-impact campaigns stopping over a million tonnes of plastic from being produced each year.*
Natalie welcomed Harriet on board to City to Sea saying:
“When I started City to Sea back in 2015, I honestly had no idea it’d become the thriving organisation it is today. We’ve had good times and bad times but have weathered the storms, thanks to our dedicated team and our supporters. And the reality is, after seven years, we recognise the need for bringing in new talent, expertise, and leadership to help us continue to thrive and grow. I’m thrilled that Harriet, with her wealth of experience leading social enterprises, has decided to join us, and I look forward to supporting her in her role as CEO, enabling me to focus more on our campaigns and communities, as Founder.”
Harriet comes to City to Sea with decades of experience working with social enterprises and communities having previously worked with CSV, The Big Issue Foundation, and Curo Choice. Harriet also has sat on boards including St Johns Foundation, Bristol Charities, and More Trees Banes. Outside of work Harriet is a keen sea and river swimmer and says she has experienced the issue of plastic pollution in our waterways first hand as well as experiencing the “hugely positive impact that connecting us all to the environment can have”.
The in-coming “Sea-EO” of City to Sea, Harriet Bosnell said,
“I am over the moon to be joining City to Sea. We’re at the forefront of bringing about change that tackles plastic pollution at source. But I know that systemic change only happens when multiple stakeholders come together. This means our government reflecting the public’s clear demand for bold action. This means businesses stepping up and scaling the solutions that we know work around refill and reuse. Crucially, it also involves each and every one of us doing everything we can. My job in the coming years is to connect these different stakeholders and relentlessly encourage systematic change at the speed and levels of ambition that the plastic crisis demands.”
She continued, “The work that City to Sea does has a very immediate impact on us all. I personally love wild swimming and have seen first-hand the impact plastic pollution has on our natural environment. From working in partnership with Housing Associations, the NHS, and the voluntary sector, I’ve witnessed the hugely positive impact that connecting us all to the environment can have on our wellbeing. When our parks are free from plastic, when our riverbanks are reserved for wildlife instead of plastic waste, when our waves break on our beaches without bringing a churn of rubbish, this is when we will all be able to reap the most from the special connection we all have to our shared natural environments. Until then, I will be wearing my City to Sea t-shirt with pride as we work together to reverse the plastic pollution crisis, building on our communities strength in numbers to bring about affordable practical behaviour change and raise awareness of what each and every one of us can do every day to protect our oceans and the beautiful world we want to live in.”