HOUSTON, Texas — Construction on one of the first mass-timber office buildings in the Houston area launched Thursday in Cypress, offering a model for the real estate industry to rein in its greenhouse gas emissions. One Bridgeland Green, developed by The Woodlands-based Howard Hughes, will be built using engineered wood for structural components. The 49,000 square-foot, three-story building will open next year near the Grand Parkway in the Bridgeland master-planned community. Building any new structure generates greenhouse gases, but steel and concrete are particularly carbon intensive. Mass timber could reduce construction emissions by 14% to 31%, research suggests. …A handful of private developers have proposed mass-timber offices in Houston, but the Bridgeland project is the first to break ground. …“We see a significant reduction in embodied carbon throughout a project’s lifecycle compared to a steel or concrete building,” said Ryan Jones with Lake Flato, the design architect for the project.