SHOPPERS at SM Supermalls can now shop and help save the environment with the Special Edition Green Bag designed by renowned artist Manny Baldemor.

A project of the SM Supermalls in partnership with Unilever, the Green Bag campaign is part of the total sustainability programs of the SM Group of Companies. It was launched at the SM Mall of Asia Atrium in a program highlighted by Manny Baldemor’s ceremonial brushstroke and turnover of his Saving Mother Earth painting to SM Prime Holdings president Hans Sy,Unilever chairman Fernando Fernandez, and SM Supermarket president Herbert Sy.

Born in Paete, Laguna, Baldemor was raised near the Sierra Madre Mountains and Laguna de Bay,allowing him to develop a passion for nature early on in life. An environment advocate himself, his Green Bag designs were inspired by the four elements-Energy, Earth, Water and Air.

Spiritual Lights and Supreme Energy depict the main source of energy, the sun; while Graces of the Land shows the bounty of crops the land can produce. Graces of the Sea is inspired by marine life; while Graces from the Air depicts birds flying freely in the sky.

Nature and the environment have inspired most of Baldemor’s paintings, and he did not think twice when he was asked to design the SM Supermalls Green Bag.

‘I believe in SM’s advocacy in preserving and protecting the environment,’ he says. ‘The involvement of big institutions like the SM Supermalls and Unilever may just be the beginning of a truly earnest effort to recognize the urgency of addressing our environmental concerns:’

Baldemor has received 24 local and international awards and grants, and has been chosen artist-in-residence in Japan, Israel, Chile, Portugal, Estonia and Switzerland. He has contributed mor.e than 20 designs for reproduction on Unicef’s Christma,s greeting cards, a remarkable feat and honor for our country since there are many submissions all over the world competing for the honor.

His Limited-Edition Green Bag designed exclusively for the SM Supermalls are available for only P35 with every single or accumulated P500 purchase at the SM Supermalls.

BALDEMOR: ‘The involvement of big institutions like the SM Supermalls and Unilever may just be the beginning of a truly earnest effort to recognize the urgency of addressing our environmental concerns.’