WWF: Accountability vs Sustainability

As a matter of disclosure - it's been quite a while since I've been a fan of organizations like World Wildlife Fund (WWF). When it comes to priorities, I believe human life and development takes precedence over some mythical idea of what the world was like / should be like - a preference that often involves doing away with humans. One of the hazards of following design and trend blogs is that you run into drivel like this from Trendhunter:

Step by step we (the world) continue to slowly but surely jump onto the eco-train. As much as it’s a personal change that members of society need to think about, it is always a good sign when a major contributor makes a statement.

Since 2006, the WWF (World Wildlife Fund) has been operating in the Netherlands out of their own personal statement.

The WWF Netherlands Headquarters is a carbon neutral office. Designed by AUR Architects, the old headquarters were used as a starting point (instead of demolishing it) in order to create the fully sustainable structure.

Of course, what they don't want to tell you is the cost. For all the fawning, what they don't mention is that it was at a cost of 4M Euros (2006) - for a renovation (MIMOA) - not a new building no less. Well, at least the employees have a nice building to work in and at least WWF can claim they're "carbon neutral". For the money they spent, at least someone's happy even if it's not the wildlife I'm assuming the funds were supposed to be directed towards.