Sustainability in Troubled Times

GLOBALIZATION
with a confidence that many of us in the so-called developed
world can only envy.”
Firth refers to this need to stand up for those more vulnerable
as “adolescent indignation.” He recalls his time living briefly
in the States when his father – then a lecturer in American
history – took his 12-year-old son to hear Senator McGovern
speak during the infamous Watergate hearings, and also out
canvassing in his role as chairman of the local Liberals.
In terms of the actor’s support network, it appears true that
behind every great man is a great woman. Having married film
producer and director Livia Giuggioli, 47, in 1997, the couple
now split their time between Chiswick, London,
and Umbria, Italy, with their two sons Luca, 16,
and Matteo, 14. Firth also has a 26-year-old son,
Will, from his relationship with actress Meg Tilly
– and the actor cannot help but beam at the mention
of his Italian spouse. “Meeting Livia has made
me a much happier man. I can’t imagine what
my life would have been like without her. We’ve
been able to enjoy a wonderful life together with
our children, and spending time in Italy has been
incredibly stimulating and fascinating for me.
Italy is a country and culture that you embrace
immediately,” he enthuses.
dazzling couture gowns usually worn to grace the red carpet,
donning instead her husband’s discarded moth-eaten suit,
recycled as a patchwork dress. She has also pioneered the
“Green Carpet Challenge,” which has seen the likes of Stella
McCartney, Tom Ford, and Academy Award-winning costume
designer Jacqueline Durran (who recently created Emma Watson’s
responsibly-sourced Beauty and the Beast Belle costumes)
clamoring to get the green seal of approval.
In 2007, she and Firth founded Eco-Age on Chiswick High
Road. A veritable mecca for the environmentally-aware, this
three-story green boutique has everything from organic face
cream to recycled stationery, wool-knit toys to lampshades
“
I’ve always felt a
need to engage in the world
in some way.
Colin Firth, actor
“There’s a warmth and charm that overwhelms
and takes me out of my more subdued English
personality. Italians love their food, their wine, their way
of looking at the world, and it’s very infectious. Even the
language, which I am still to master, makes you feel more
exuberant.”
Alongside her work in film, Livia is an advocate for sustainability
and ethical practice in the fashion industry, a cause
which came to the forefront of our global consciousness in
2013 when the eight-storey Rana Plaza garment factory in
Bangladesh collapsed and killed more than 1,100 people –
mostly women. Livia was familiar with the factory, having
visited the garment workers four years previously as an Oxfam
global ambassador, and was shocked by the dangerous work
conditions: stifling heat with no ventilation, bars on windows,
and seemingly constant work demands.
Devoted to raising awareness of the underpaid and overworked
millions who toil to supply us in the West with cheap, disposable
fashion, the stylish and stunning brunette has used
the couple’s joint celebrity to promote the cause via various
creative tactics. At the Paris premiere of The King’s Speech –
in which Firth played King George VI – Livia eschewed the
made from the shaved wood of fallen Norwegian trees. It also
boasts a team of on-site consultants who can advise customers
on how to make their homes more energy-efficient, and
a corporate arm for companies that wish to improve their
sustainability record – with Gucci, Net-A-Porter, and Marks
and Spencer among their ranks.
With so many passion projects between them, not to mention
high-profile careers and two teenage children, it is a true wonder
the Firths have time for the glamorous soirees at which
they are often snapped. The secret, according to Firth, is the
indefatigable Livia. “My wife is firmly in charge,” he says with
a wry smile. “She is always one step ahead of me, ruthlessly
efficient, energetic, and tireless. She knows my weaknesses
and my tendency to be rather too lackadaisical at times. I lead
a lot of things out but she is pushing me from behind and
clearing the path in front; that much is certainly true. There is
always work to be done; the world is always evolving quicker
than we realize, and certainly quicker than we can possibly be
expected to respond to it. So uniting for shared, good causes,
pooling resources, and sharing knowledge is the only way we
can correct some of the world’s ills.”
Global Compact International Yearbook 2017 33