Ali'i Place in downtown Honolulu is one of 5 million buildings in the country consuming 40% of the energy produced in the U.S. It's also one of about 10 buildings in Hawai'i chosen by owner CB Richard Ellis to be green.

"Our first building in Hawai'i was one main plaza on Maui which received energy star last year," said Nestor Longboy, from CB Richard Ellis.

CB hired Chelsea Group, to look for example, at a building's chiller, pumping chilled water to cool it. Chelsea is a building consulting firm with sustainability at its core and, in the last year and a half, it's seen business boom in Hawai'i.

"The first thing we do is figure out what condition the building is in today and how green it is," said Chelsea Group C.E.O. & Founder George Benda. "We have to know how much energy it uses, how much water, how much waste it produces. This is a very well run building so."

KEY is how clean the chiller room is at Ali'i Place. Cleanliness he says, means it's easier to detect problems, it's well-maintained and that all equals efficiency. Chelsea did recommend a new automation system so building manager PM Realty can keep track of the chiller and building thermostats. He says the norm in Hawai'I is a thermostat at 72-degrees, he recommends 76 degrees.

All the incandescent lights have been changed to compact fluorescents, which are cooler, use a fraction of the energy and last a hundred times longer. And sometimes it's as simple as telling employees to turn off the lights when they go home.

"In one of the suites we were able to put in a system so that as the last person out the door shuts off the light next to it is a little switch they can hit the switch to show that they're no longer occupying the space and it goes into set back mode and reduces the amount of energy the building will consume," said Benda.

"The air conditioning systems in buildings are compromise, a huge load on any building 3:00 and we're talking thousands of dollars in savings? Yes, several thousands of dollars," said Longboy.

Benda says Hawai'i isn't the most aggressive in turning its buildings green, California, Nevada, they do better, but it's not the worst either, in fact Chelsea Group is now working on 30 buildings across the state, including the state convention center.