Houston notches green gains

New energy-efficient buildings lead to No. 4 ranking on list of 30 largest office markets in the United States

The nation’s energy capital is becoming more energy efficient when it comes to office space.

New energy-efficient buildings helped push Houston up a notch to No. 4 among U.S. cities on the Green Building Adoption Index, according to a study by CBRE Group and the Netherlands’ Maastricht University.

The green office buildings hold an EPA Energy Star label, a U.S. Green Building Council LEED certification or both.

Houston’s certified green buildings grew to 60.1 percent of overall office space at the end of 2015, up from 52.8 percent the previous year and well above the 40.2 percent of all office space in a survey of buildings in the nation’s 30 largest office markets.

“Building new, LEED-certified buildings has become a market standard for Houston, especially as companies attract a younger workforce and use their offices as a way to recruit and retain talent,” Steve Rocher, executive vice president, CBRE said in an announcement.

Nearly 50 office buildings with 16 million square feet under construction in 2014 are mostly open. That includes campuses for Phillips 66, Exxon Mobil, Noble Energy and some of the Energy Center buildings.

San Francisco, which also has seen a

lot of recent construction, earned the top spot on the index, followed by Chicago and Minneapolis.

Houston and Los Angeles tied for the secondhighest number of green office buildings, with 284 each. Washington, D.C., where buildings tend to be smaller because of height restrictions, had 578 green buildings.

The study examined 117 LEED-certified buildings in Houston, representing 31.8 percent of the market’s overall office space. Houston buildings certified with the Energy Star rating made up 41.1 percent of the floor area.

Houston trailed only Chicago and San Francisco in terms of LEED-certified square footage.

The study highlighted Houston green deals: • Nine of the biggest 25 leases, including Apache Corp.’s renewal for 524,000 square feet in the Post Oak Central campus, were in LEED-certified buildings. • Six LEED-certified buildings, including 2200 Post Oak Blvd., which fetched $172 million or $527 per square foot, were sold in 2015.

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HFF The Galleria-area BBVA Compass Plaza has LEED Gold certification. The 22-story tower opened in mid-2013.

Katherine Feser / Houston Chronicle file Trammell Crow and CBRE spearheaded Energy Center Five at 915 N. Eldridge Parkway along with other LEED-Gold certified buildings.