The story behind the idea
A journey spanning decades, through books, research, failures, and an experiment involving an animated polar bear.
As a teenager in the 70s and 80s, I came across a book with a fascinating title: The Limits to Growth, by Donella Meadows.
At that age, the concept of "limits" felt abstract, almost non-existent. And yet the title stuck with me. Like a seed planted without my noticing.
Years later, in 2010, I came across another piece of research that struck me deeply: Hacking Human Nature for Good, by Dan Ariely and other researchers.
They described an experiment at Dartmouth College: in university dormitories, a display had been installed showing an animated polar bear. When students used too much energy, the bear would visibly deteriorate — almost as if suffering.
The experiment
That simple emotional trick — linking an everyday action to a visible consequence — reduced energy consumption by 10%.
The idea that a symbol could make such a vast problem concrete stayed with me.
That's where the name PolarBear came from.
In 2015 I actually tried to build something. With help from a researcher friend, I studied papers, emission factors, climate models.
And that's where the first hard truth hit: the complexity of the topic is enormous.
My first app was… honestly unusable. Too complicated — even for me, the one who built it.
I gave up.
It was a difficult period, and one of the few times I could truly stop. That old idea came knocking again — and this time I answered.
And I, not being someone who gives up easily, started over from scratch.
Today, after three versions, many attempts and just as many mistakes, a small ecosystem has emerged with one simple goal: help people understand and reduce their environmental impact, without complications, without judgement, and with total respect for privacy.
PolarBear helps people and organizations explore impact estimates and climate initiatives. Personal calculations stay local by default; with separate consent, selected data may be sent for research or usage telemetry with pseudonymous identifiers, which are not anonymous data.
To cover costs, I'm building a system where local businesses that believe in this idea directly reward people with more sustainable lifestyles. Do good for the environment, and someone nearby takes notice.
The backend provides public aggregate indicators with cells below k=5 suppressed. Event-level and longitudinal exports require controlled access; procedures and agreements for external access must be formalized.
If you feel like trying it, or just want to tell me what you think, I'd love to hear from you.
Thank you to everyone willing to be part of this small experiment.