Friendswood is Home to Platinum LEED-Certified Jacob White Construction Building

The Jacob White office building located at 2000 W. Parkwood Ave. may just seem like another building in Friendswood, but it is no ordinary building.Take a closer look and you can see plants growing on the roof of this building. The lush and even edible plants on the roof are irrigated by reclaimed rainwater and the soil serves as insulation for the building.

This is one of the many innovative design aspects that helped achieve a LEED Platinum rating from the United States Green Building Council. This building is also the first LEED for Core & Shell 2009 certified in the world. Of the world’s 7,321 LEED-certified green building projects, fewer than 400 have achieved the LEED Rating System’s highest level, Platinum.

Beyond the visible features, two green building strategies are paramount to Jacob White Construction: ensuring a healthy, productive environment for occupants, and reducing longterm operating costs through energy efficiency. “We have always built, owned and managed healthier, more resource efficient buildings,” said Jeff Mickler, president and CEO of Jacob White Construction.

“The most successful green building rating systems -- LEED and ENERGY STAR – happen to give us globally recognized, meaningful scorecards and metrics, helping us benchmark our buildings’ design and performance.”

This building along with two other LEED Platinum buildings built, owned and operated by Jacob White Construction in the Houston area boast an innovative, certified combination of visible green features such as green roofs, rainwater catchment, outdoor views, and even wind turbines in addition to not so visible features such as healthier, resource-efficient strategies, faster rental velocity, and higher, more consistent occupancies.

From Community Development Newsletter by Aubrey Harbin, LEED AP Development Specialist