Gassman's passion for nature was born early thanks to his mother, the famous French actress Juliette Maynel, who was also a farmer. During the holidays, she always took the opportunity to take her son with her to the countryside in Tuscany. From those sweet times on, nature became a great passion for the actor, rooted in him even in the following years: he enrolled in the Faculty of Agriculture in Perugia.
But what stimulated Gassman to take an interest in and worry about environmental sustainability was respect for others, a feeling consolidated since the birth of his son Leonardo: as he states in the book, "Leo, being born, lengthened and enlarged my life. None of us, in practice, care what will happen when we are gone. […] And in fact, I wasn't interested until I became a dad".
His sensitivity led him to try to do something concrete to support the environmental issue. That is why his #GreenHeroes column was born, hosted on Repubblica's "il Venerdì", and delivered thanks to the scientific support of the Kyoto Club. The column, which later migrated to this biography, collects the stories of those who managed to combine economy and environment, proving how a greener future is possible and within everyone's reach. So who are these green heroes? They are the people who have managed to find a way to avoid the waste of rice processing, discovering a part of it valuable to prevent the plasters from becoming mouldy. They are those who have invented a type of paint capable of absorbing pollution and purifying the air and also those who have given life to sustainable fashion projects, guaranteeing the circularity and sustainability of the products. Green Heroes are also the people of Askoll because, for over 40 years, we have been developing solutions that save a lot of energy and, since 2015, we have been aiming to make the sky in our cities increasingly blue and the air lighter, thanks to our electric vehicles.
Whether you are a fan of Gassman, we recommend this book: this reading means embarking on a curious journey to discover interesting all-Italian stories. These stories aim to give us back a better future, demonstrating how the economy and environmental sustainability can go hand in hand, and they can do it well.
