1. Our Purpose
Polar Defenders is a storytelling universe for children that spans animation, books, an interactive app,
and products they can hold in their hands. We exist to help young people fall in love with the living
world and to turn that love into real forests, restored habitats, and more just communities. Every story
arc, character, and product is guided by the belief that imagination should lead to action, and action
should leave the planet and its peoples better off than before.
We are one project within a much larger global effort. Whenever we engage with communities on the
front lines of climate and biodiversity change, we follow their priorities, elevate their voices, and direct a share of our platform and resources toward their own work rather than speaking for them.

2. Children First: Learning, Wellbeing, and Agency
Polar Defenders is built around children’s curiosity and capacity to act. Through our stories, books, and
app, children and their families read together, plant seeds, track the growth of their own unique forests, and are invited to volunteer with local environmental organizations.
We acknowledge the reality of climate change and biodiversity loss, but we frame these realities with
care. Our content is age-appropriate and solution-oriented. We work with child development and
education specialists so that our stories and activities support emotional well-being, reduce eco-anxiety, and emphasize collective solutions rather than individual blame. We focus on clear explanations and hopeful storylines that children can understand. Every book, episode, and feature also offers specific actions children can take with adults, and that is the baseline for how we design content and features.

3. Climate, Biodiversity, and Impact Integrity
Our “green growing” model links Polar Defenders stories and products to tangible support for living
systems. Through specialist partners in restoration and research, each book and key product
contributes to the growth and care of forests, grasslands, kelp beds, and other critical habitats.
We focus on long-term ecological health rather than simple tree counts or marketing numbers. Projects are selected for scientific grounding, community leadership, and respect for land rights. Our partners monitor survival and habitat health over time, and we will report aggregate results, not just plantings.
We do not treat these efforts as simple offsets, nor will we label products as “carbon neutral” or make
broad climate claims unless they are supported by a full footprint, credible mitigation, and independent standards.

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4. Digital Responsibility and Data Ethics
The Polar Defenders app and supporting digital tools are designed with child safety and privacy at their core. We comply with children’s privacy laws, including COPPA and GDPR-K, and we design to meet or exceed the strictest standards in the regions where we operate. We collect only the minimum data needed to deliver specific features, obtain verifiable parental consent where required, and give parents clear tools to review and delete their children’s information.
We do not plan to sell children’s data or use it for behavioral advertising. We avoid manipulative or
addictive design patterns and build experiences that favor learning, reflection, and real world action
over screen time for its own sake. Where we employ data or artificial intelligence, it will be to improve
habitat restoration, education, or user experience, not to profile children or monetize their attention.
We regularly assess digital risks to children’s rights and adjust our products in response.

5. Indigenous Rights, Justice, and Partnership
Climate change and biodiversity loss fall heaviest on Indigenous peoples and other frontline
communities, including in polar and subpolar regions. Polar Defenders recognizes the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples to their lands, cultures, and ways of knowing. We ground our approach in
international human rights standards, including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples.
When our stories, characters, projects, or partnerships involve Indigenous lands, languages, knowledge, or communities, we follow the principles of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent. If consent is not given, we do not move forward. We prioritize relationships with Indigenous knowledge holders, artists, and organizations, and, where their contributions shape our intellectual property, we work together to define how benefits, credit, and control are shared. As we grow, we are establishing Indigenous advisory structures so that these relationships guide our decisions over time. Our goal is not to borrow the aesthetics of Indigenous cultures, but to stand alongside Indigenous partners who choose to collaborate with us.

6. Respectful Storytelling and Representation
The stories children encounter in Polar Defenders help shape how they see themselves, other people,
and the living world. Polar Defenders is committed to portraying all communities, human and
nonhuman, with dignity, agency, and complexity. We aim to avoid stereotypes, tokenism, and “single
story” portrayals. Our narratives recognize that communities are defined not only by hardship, but also
by resilience, creativity, and joy.
To support this, we build diverse creative teams and engage advisors and sensitivity readers who can
surface harms and blind spots in scripts, visuals, and educational materials. Wherever practicable, we
prioritize casting and creative roles for people from the communities whose stories we tell. We provide
clear ways for communities to raise concerns about representation, and we commit to revisiting and
revising content when we fall short of our values of respect, accuracy, and fairness.

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7. Sustainable Practices in Everything We Make
Our commitments extend beyond themes and philanthropy into how we create our work.
Film and Animation Production
We align our productions with industry-leading green production practices, including frameworks such as BAFTA Albert and the Green Production Guide, as references for our standards. For each major
production, we measure greenhouse gas emissions and key resource use, set reduction priorities for
travel, energy, and materials, and minimize waste before considering any offsetting. Where we cannot
use the ideal option, we document the tradeoffs and apply what we learn to future planning.
App, AI, and Digital Infrastructure
We select infrastructure with a preference for lower-carbon energy when it meets our safety, reliability,
and accessibility needs. We design lean code, monitor the energy use of our digital products, and
periodically review the footprint of new features. We weigh the environmental cost of the computer-
intensive tools against their educational value, and do not ship features that add a significant footprint without a clear benefit to children’s learning or real-world impact.
Toys, Clothing, and Merchandise
For plush toys, apparel, and other merchandise, we favor durable, repairable products over disposable
novelty and set targets to reduce single-use plastics and unnecessary packaging, tracking our progress
over time. Our supplier code of conduct, informed by international expectations such as the OECD Due
Diligence Guidance prohibits forced and child labor, requires safe working conditions and respect for
workers’ rights, and calls for progress toward fair wages. We require compliance with strict chemical
safety standards for all materials and finishes, and will expand independent auditing and traceability so that families can see more of where and how our products are made.
Books and Printed Materials
Our books and printed materials favor certified responsible paper, such as FSC or equivalent, and lower-impact inks, and avoid fiber from high-risk sources linked to deforestation or human rights abuses. We work with printers that operate strong environmental management systems and continually improve resource efficiency. We plan print runs to reduce overproduction, manage returns responsibly, and seek secondary uses that keep unsold copies out of landfill whenever possible.

8. Partnerships, Science, and Continuous Learning
Polar Defenders does not act alone. We collaborate with restoration organizations, universities,
curriculum partners, and community and Indigenous organizations to design, test, and improve our
impact model. Scientific research informs how and where our “green growing” efforts are focused.
Educators help us translate complex environmental and social topics into age-appropriate learning and curriculum. Community partners help ensure that efforts on the ground reflect local priorities,
knowledge, local best practices, and do not crowd out existing initiatives.

We choose partners whose work is grounded in independent science or community leadership and are transparent about our role in funding and co-design. Our brand is not a substitute for their expertise.
We understand that sustainability, justice, and children’s well-being are fields where our understanding
is still growing, and we commit to listening, learning, and updating our practices as we receive new
evidence and feedback.

9. Governance, Human Rights, and Transparency
This statement sits within a broader commitment to respect human rights across our activities, informed by frameworks such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and children’s rights conventions. We treat sustainability and justice not as a marketing position, but as ongoing due diligence. That means identifying potential harms, working to prevent or reduce them, and, where our actions have contributed to harm, taking part in remedy.
Our board receives regular updates on progress against this statement and reviews it at least every two years. As we grow, we will track a small set of clear indicators, such as habitats supported and their long term health, educational reach, improvements in our supply chain practices, and the evolution of our commitments around justice and representation. We will publish periodic summaries that reflect both progress and areas where we need to improve.
We will also maintain clear channels for parents and caregivers, partners, communities, and workers in our supply chain and broader value chain to raise concerns or complaints. When issues are brought to us, we will respond in good faith and work with those affected to understand the impact and, where
appropriate, to provide or support a remedy.
Ultimately, this statement is a promise to children and to the communities they will inherit. It is also an
invitation. We invite families, educators, investors, Indigenous partners, creative collaborators, and
environmental organizations to join us in shaping, challenging, and strengthening Polar Defenders so
that our stories help grow not only forests and kelp beds, but also a more just, livable world for
everyone.