Multi-awarded environmental “artivist” (a portmanteau of “art” and “activist”) AG Saño returned with his paint and paintbrush to widen the PLDT-Smart Gabay Kalikasan street mural in Makati in a bid to further raise climate change awareness.
Saño’s initial artwork in December 2019 featured more than 3,000 square feet of Philippine flora and fauna throughout the telco headquarters’ Legazpi Street frontage and Dela Rosa Street walkway. The street mural’s second phase, completed in March 2020, is a 120-feet tall vertical piece at its Gallardo back entrance, said to be the tallest environmental mural in Southeast Asia.
A joint project between PLDT-Smart and the Makati Commercial Estate Association (MaCEA), the mural extension, completed before the end of January this year, was painted on the Legazpi – Dela Rosa elevated walkway. It continues the existing mural theme around the telco building which featured local bird species clad in armor.
“The general state of the environment did not improve in 2020. Wildlife population is still diminishing. As environmental street artists, we want to keep on creating images of nature to keep nature’s beauty in the consciousness of the daily urban pedestrian,” said Saño.
With the mural, MaCEA says it aims to make the central business district pedestrian-friendly and well connected, celebrate its distinct neighborhood, transform it into an art center, and help redevelop it further into a vibrant CBD.
PLDT, meanwhile, ensures that it uses energy responsibly. As greenhouse gas emissions arise from energy consumed by its network in operation—in the establishments they run and emissions from transport—the telco aims to protect the planet through technology-based carbon footprint offsetting programs. The programs include initiatives in reforestation, marine protection, mangroves preservation, and peatlands conservation that leverage on digital innovations and PLDT-Smart’s network.