Eugenie Harvey

Eugenie Harvey is co-founder of We Are What We Do - a movement that aims to inspire people to change the world bit by bit through their every day actions. Its Change the World for a Fiver book features 50 everyday simple actions to help people improve the environment, their health and communities and the planet as a whole.

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The We Are What We Do movement began as a Community Links project and has gradually grown larger and larger. Within 100 days of becoming established, they had sold over 120,000 copies of the book and had over 250,000 people visit the website: www.wearewhatwedo.org.  They have also had over 5,000 suggestions from the public for new initiatives and actions.

Highlights so far include being asked to participate in The Big Issue’s 15th birthday party, which saw copies of their books – Change the World for a Fiver and the recently published Change the World 9 to 5 – being sold by Big Issue vendors, and a well-publicised collaboration with designer Anya Hindmarch to produce the ‘I’m not a plastic bag’ re-useable shopping bags. This project aimed to raise awareness of plastic bag usage as well as engaging more people in the We Are What We Do movement.

We Are What We Do was started by two volunteers and now comprises nine full time members of staff. The movement is funded by the proceeds of their books, which as well as staff salaries, go towards developing and maintaining the website, creating and managing the education programme and helping to fund foreign editions of the book. We Are What We Do also works with partners on a pro bono basis, creating products and initiatives that are available to the public at modest prices, but which provide a small surplus used for the continuing development of the movement.