By Radin Nasuhakamar Binti Radin Shamsulkamar
Greenwashing is a common way corporations want to appeal to stakeholders whilst not practising it. This is because the pathway to sustainability is not without challenges and sacrifices. However, a small privately owned event management company takes a big step in working towards helping Mother Earth the best it can.
Lima Deria Sdn Bhd is a privately owned company based in Kuala Lumpur with a branch office in Johor Bahru, working towards sustainability to attain the ISO 20121 certification. This company has been managing events, designing graphics, and conducting training programmes for eight years. Lima Deria organises every event that comes to mind, such as conference meetings, sports events, team building, and even birthday parties.
Eight years may seem like a small number, but it is no easy feat, especially for a company such as Lima Deria, which faces limited manpower and capital. This has caused the company to work up the ladder slowly but surely, making sure to take projects that may be big but are capable of handling.
Shamsul Shamsudin, the company’s principal, mentions that due to the lack of manpower, managing events does become stressful as there are instances where the job would need possibly ten people; however, with no luxury of that, the company make do with three to four people, and still manage to satisfy its client’s expectations. As any business is, the event-organising scene is just as competitive. Lima Deria must put in more than 100 per cent of its competitors to secure jobs, especially as a private business, making it even more challenging to receive government contracts. It depends on word of mouth and does its absolute best when proposing projects to potential clients.
Shamsul shared that one of Lima Deria’s proudest moments that aided it in getting to this point in its business was back in 2019.
FamilyMart Malaysia, a Japanese convenience store franchise in Malaysia, contacted Lima Deria to organise a conference, team building programme and an annual dinner. Lima Deria faced this head-on despite having a limited timeframe where one event had only a few hours’ gap with another.
The conference would be in the morning; meanwhile, the town hall session would be in the evening, and dinner time would be the FamilyMart’s Annual Dinner.
“Logistically, many things were a nightmare, but we could do very well because we made do with the time gap, and there were a few things that we managed to set up accordingly after the daytime event,” Shamsul reveals.
Lima Deria not only had to set up the venue and make sure the technical parts of the event were pristine, but it also had to decorate the hall with Halloween-themed decorations, which was a challenge. In the end, its clients were delighted with how everything turned out.
Its struggles were well worth the effort as a famous US-based toy company has reached out to Lima Deria through its Malaysia branch, where it expects a few projects for its famous brands to be done by Lima Deria.
“We are looking to run about nine events throughout 2024,” the company’s principal says.
Though ecstatic at the opportunity, Shamsul says that Lima Deria will not bite off more than it can chew and is aware of its position. This is all to keep its commitment and consistency more sustainable by considering the workload it realistically can handle.
On top of it all, the company is grateful for the chance to be recognised and work with this client as it has with all its previous ones.
Though it cannot advertise itself actively, Lima Deria does not see it as a weakness. Instead, it realises that this way, it could be more sustainable when holding events as extra resources or budgets are not needed for advertising.
Some of its sustainable practices are reusing materials that are still in good shape after deconstructing structures they build for specific events. For example, there would be some plywood used for a number of things, such as backdrop framing and high-quality backdrops, and the staff would repurpose these materials for future events. They are not only avoiding being wasteful with materials but also the costs of repurchasing them.
As the principal of Lima Deria Sdn Bhd, Shamsul realises that sustainability is important because of the evident climate crisis.
He mentions that huge running events will need a lot of resources and that many organisations need to realise the amount of greenhouse gases they release into the atmosphere that could be caused by one of many things, such as unmanaged food waste and throwing away reusable materials.
Shamsul also mentions that the company aims to be sustainable in how it carries out its business. A social aspect that should be of utmost importance is ensuring all stakeholders, such as clients, workers, volunteers, and event attendees, are well-cared for regarding their comfort, fair charges, wages, and welfare.
Shamsul continues to press on how sustainability is not only important in event management but also in any business, institute, organisation and so on.
“People ask me why I want to be sustainable, simple; it is just the right thing to do,” Shamsul says.
Many organisations need to pay more attention to the details of optimum electricity and water usage during events that create more waste than intended.
Lima Deria aims to be the hand that helps these organisations to be environmentally aware while still reaching excellent results for their stakeholders.
The biggest challenge in embracing sustainability is that profit margins will be slightly lower.
However, Lima Deria staff knows how the certification and need to be sustainable are investments for their company in the long term. The step forward that Lima Deria has decided is to stay committed to being sustainable and is working towards receiving certification for ISO 20121, which is the international standard for sustainable event management.
Lima Deria hopes to be Malaysia’s first event management company to accept this as it stays committed to its plans. Shamsul urges all businesses to be sustainable as necessary, and not to give in to fad since climate change affects us all.
Once again, to improve is to go on an adventure despite underlying risks that are bound to happen in the future and the obstacles that may come. Lima Deria Sdn Bhd is leaping to improve itself and become environmentally aware.
Any of us planning to organise or attend events should also be considerate in being sustainable so that together, our efforts will make a difference.
Shamsul advises that anyone interested in event management should go for it as it opens up opportunities in many fields and growth.
To keep up with its journey, check out Lima Deria on Facebook.
- This article was written by a student from the Strategic Communication Programme at the Faculty of Education, Language and Communication, UNIMAS.
