Petrosains Named Company Of The Year For Promoting Inclusive STEM Education at Sustainability & CSR Malaysia Awards 2026
TLDR
- Petrosains, PETRONAS’ social impact arm, took the Company of the Year (Science Centre) – Education, Sustainability & Transformation Award at the Sustainability & CSR Malaysia Awards 2026 in Kuala Lumpur.
- The award spotlights Petrosains’ push to widen STEM access for Orang Asli, Peribumi, neurodivergent learners, PWDs and children from underserved rural backgrounds.
- Key programmes include the Discovery Centre, four PlaySmart satellites in Johor Bahru, Kuantan, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, PlayFarm, the Discovery Rover outreach, and the Tech4All initiative.
- Sustainability work is woven in through the revamped PlayFarm, the Sustainability Gallery, the 3E@Schools programme and a Waste to Product scheme that turns used industrial materials into laptop sleeves and pouches.
- The award was presented by Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development Lim Hui Ying, with Petrosains CEO Ezarisma Azni Mohamad accepting on stage.
Petrosains has been named Company of the Year (Science Centre) – Education, Sustainability & Transformation at the Sustainability & CSR Malaysia Awards 2026, becoming the first science-focused body to land the national award category. The recognition, presented by Deputy Minister of Women, Family and Community Development Lim Hui Ying at the Kuala Lumpur ceremony, validates Petrosains’ long-running effort to make science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) learning accessible to communities that traditional outreach often misses.
Under the spotlight was Petrosains’ reach into underserved, indigenous and rural communities — including dedicated programmes for Orang Asli and Peribumi groups, neurodivergent learners, Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) and children from low-income backgrounds. The award citation highlighted the organisation’s blend of interactive, community-based programming and operational scale, with Petrosains framing the win as a shared moment for its educators, volunteers and partner networks.
What the Award Actually Covers
The judging panel looked at Petrosains’ portfolio of national touchpoints, not just a single flagship programme. The Petrosains Discovery Centre in Kuala Lumpur anchors the network, while four PlaySmart Satellite Centres in Johor Bahru, Kuantan, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu extend the experience into East Malaysia and the southern and east coast regions. The Discovery Rover brings a mobile science experience to school compounds and rural villages, and the Tech4All initiative targets digital and technology access for marginalised learners.
Sustainability sits alongside STEM as a second pillar. The revamped Petrosains PlayFarm in Johor Bahru, the Sustainability Gallery inside the Discovery Centre, the 3E@Schools programme and the Waste to Product scheme all carry weight in the award. The Waste to Product initiative is the most tangible — it converts used industrial materials into practical items such as laptop sleeves and pouches, embedding a circular-economy message into a hands-on product that participants can take home.
Leadership and What Comes Next
Petrosains CEO Ezarisma Azni Mohamad said the recognition reflects the combined effort of employees, educators, partners, volunteers and communities across the country. Speaking after the ceremony, he framed Petrosains’ role as the social impact arm of PETRONAS and reiterated the organisation’s commitment to advancing education, sustainability and social impact through STEM learning. The award effectively gives Petrosains a national platform to scale the next phase of its outreach — particularly the satellite centres and Tech4All — without having to justify the work from scratch to corporate Malaysia.
Our Take
For a CSR-led science centre, the harder metric is whether the underserved communities actually feel the impact — not just headline visits. The Waste to Product scheme is the most measurable piece: turning used industrial materials into real products gives the circular-economy story a tangible output, and the Tech4All initiative has the right framing for digital inclusion. The PlaySmart satellite model also matters, because Johor Bahru, Kuantan, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu cover Malaysia’s key population corridors without requiring a trip to KL.
The honest caveat: awards do not yet prove scale. Petrosains will need to publish reach numbers — how many Orang Asli, Peribumi, neurodivergent and PWD learners engaged in 2026, and how that breaks down across the four satellites — to make this more than a glossy trophy. The Sustainability & CSR Malaysia Awards 2026 recognition is a useful platform, but the organisation’s credibility with Malaysian educators will rest on whether Tech4All and Discovery Rover keep showing up in schools that have never hosted a science centre.
