The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative

26 April 2022

Resource Futures Senior Consultant Katie Powell is this week part of a delegation from Bristol taking part in the Bloomberg Harvard Collaboration Track in New York City.

The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative inspires and invests in future generations of city leaders.

Since the Initiative’s founding, more than 200 students have engaged in fellowships in city halls, research opportunities with the Initiative, and experiential learning opportunities through field coursework and thesis work for city government clients.

Harvard University

Following the involvement of the Mayor of Bristol in the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative in 2021, Bristol is now one of ten cities in the world enrolled on the 2022 Bloomberg Harvard Collaboration Track.

Joining six cities from the USA and three others from around the world to learn, to tackle challenges, and overcome barriers through cross-boundary collaboration. Each city is working on its own problem while coming together to develop skills and better:

  • Impart know-how
  • Catalyse team building
  • Encourage progress
  • Transfer learning

The problem Bristol has focused on is food waste in the city, with Resource Futures playing a key role; leading the food waste area of excellence during the campaign to achieve Gold Sustainable Food City status and continuing to work on food waste in line with Bristol’s One City Plan.

Katie, who is part of a team representing Bristol City Council and Bristol’s food and waste sectors, had this to say ahead of her visit;

Going for Gold was one of the first projects I took on at Resource Futures when I started as an Intern in 2018.

“I am honoured to be working with a such an inspiring team from Bristol and will soon be applying all I learn to further our achievements in tackling food waste in the city.”

Katie Powell, Senior Consultant

Joining 80 delegates from around the world, Katie and the team will take part in an intensive Cross-Boundary Collaboration programme, completing five days of concentrated learning to help address their city problem.

With a focus on improving rapid team building, iterative scoping of their problem statement, a deep dive into the causes of their problem, and engagement of city stakeholders to better understand it.

Keep across Katie’s week in New York with regular video updates via LinkedIn