Five organisations wanted to have their own environmental award. Dato’ Kok Wee Kiat, Former President of BCSDM at that time persuade all organisations to adopt a common approach with a standard set of criteria that the government would be happy to support.
The Award was named the “Hibiscus Award”. The decision to name the award after the national flower was based on the fact that there were five founding members organisations, a reflection of the five petals of the hibiscus.
One of the foreign based members ceased operations in Malaysia, leaving the other four actively involved in the award. They were BCSDM, ENSEARCH, FMM and MICCI.