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Ken Westlake, building engineer for Crown Plaza, a 280,000-square-foot office building in downtown Portland, checks the status of a Trane water chiller in the building’s basement. The chiller, which was installed more than two years ago, has proved to be 60 percent more efficient than the previous unit.

Because of the installation of the chiller and a number of other green measures, the building constructed in 1970 has received the Green Building Initiative’s certification of three Green Globes. The mission of GBI is to promote environmentally sustainable buildings that use green building practices. Jim Mark, CEO of the Melvin Mark Cos., the building’s owner, accepted the award from GBI President Ward Hubble.

More than $800,000 has been invested in Crown Plaza since 1994 to lower the building’s carbon footprint and improve its energy efficiency. The owner estimated that the efforts have generated annual savings of 1,308,849 kilowatt-hours of electricity, or more than $100,000 in costs.

SAIF Corp., the major tenant in Crown Plaza, also received the city of Portland’s Climate Champion award for efforts to reduce its carbon emissions.