It’s a busy time at Fisher & Paykel at the moment with an announcement just being made that it is a finalist in the 2009 Australian International Design Awards, in addition to this they are also backing the Earth Hour campaign with an interesting approach to energy generation.

Fisher & Paykel reports that two of its products, the Izona CookSurface and Izona CoolDrawer, have been selected as finalists in the Australian International Design Awards for 2009 and national marketing manager, Peter Russel was very excited about the announcement.

“We are thrilled to have not one but two of the new Izona products selected as finalists for such a prestigious award,” he said.

“This is clear recognition that Fisher & Paykel and indeed Izona are firmly at the forefront of innovation and design.”

The winner will be announced in Melbourne on 29 May at the Australian International Design Awards Presentation Night.

As well as the nomination news, Fisher & Paykel has also revealed that they are taking an active role in preventing climate change by throwing their support behind the Earth Hour 2009 campaign.

To show its support the company is getting behind an interesting initiative that will see a rock concert being powered completely by natural energy.

Fisher & Paykel are offering its SmartDrive technology, found in the popular AquaSmart range of washing machine, to generate power for the key launch event for Earth Hour 2009, the Future Spark concert.

This will be done by attaching SmartDrive motors to electricity generating bicycles via solar panels, this in turn will create electricity when the bicycles are pedalled.

“We are very excited to be contributing to this inspiring event,” said Russel.

“Earth Hour brings to light the importance of climate change, and our efficient technology will help avoid the large quantities of greenhouse gasses and wasted energy that are normally indirectly associated with concerts of this scale.”