get a take on time.
"You get directors who say, 'Make the kid cry, get the scene right,'" he says with a laugh. "Things get wasted, thrown away, replaced. Whole sets go to landfill. Food gets laid out for the banquet scene and sprayed so it looks good but you can'ttouch it or eat it.
"The waste (even) to people who have no environmental conscience at all is pretty staggering to witness."
Firth was in Toronto over the weekend to accept an award, with his brother-in-law, for his support of the environment.
They received the inaugural International Entertainment Award award from the Green Living/Environmental Media Association at the Green Living show, attracting a large crowd of environmental enthusiasts and Firth fans.
The Environmental Media Association is trying to mobilize the entertainment industry to educate people about environmental issues and inspire them to take action.
The association invented the concept of the "green carpet," the idea of taking a hybrid or alternative fuel vehicle, not a limo, to high-profile awards events.
Firth, his wife Livia, and her brother Nicola Giuggioli co-founded Eco Age in 2007, a London-based store that sells environmentally sensible products and offers consulting support to businesses on how to operate in a green way.
Accompanied by his famous brother-in-law, Giuggioli said in an interview that one of his goals is to show others that it is possible to run both a financially and environmentally sound business.
"You can do it and actually it is going to work pretty well," said Giuggioli, who was 25 when he began his business.
The concept is to go beyond green products.
"People should come to my shop to buy good things. The whole ethos behind the thing was to make things desirable," he says.
Eco Age sells products like purses made of pop can pulls and the Eco Button, which switches computers to the most economical sleep mode available when you press it.
It's a family operation — Giuggioli manages it, his sister is deputy director and a twin brother is the buyer.
"Colin obviously is the face of the business," said Giuggioli.
As well as investing in his brother-in-law's company and sometimes working the cash register in the store, Firth is working with an organization in Britain that focuses on making sure waste on film sets is minimized.
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On the web:www.ema-online.org;www.eco-age.com
