Volkswagen’s Chattanooga manufacturing plant has been awarded platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) green building certification program. This makes VW the first automaker to reach the notoriously difficult, highest level of LEED certification.

To earn LEED certification, the project must satisfy all prerequisites and qualify for a minimum number of points to attain the established ratings. Once the basic prerequisites of the program are satisfied, applicant projects are then rated according to their degree of compliance within the rating system. The Green Building Council rates structures based on their environmental impact and other criteria such as energy and water consumption, use of raw materials, and recycling rates. Certifications are awarded according to the following scale:

Certified: 40-49 points
Silver: 50-59 points
Gold: 60-79 points
Platinum: 80 points and above

The new 1,400-acre facility where the U.S. Passat is built has been fitted with sophisticated technology as well as simple measures to conserve energy and water. These include using rainwater collected on the roof to cool welding equipment and flush toilets, constructing an ultra-clean paint shop, which is estimated to save 50 million gallons of water over 10 years, and installing LED lighting that uses two-thirds less energy.

“Volkswagen is committed to the US market,” said Jonathan Browning, president and CEO, Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. “During the worst recession in the past century, we never wavered with our investment of a billion dollars to create this world-class facility. This certification underscores Volkswagen’s commitment to engineering excellence.”

The Volkswagen Academy was also certified by the USGBC as a Platinum LEED facility. The primary purpose of the Volkswagen Academy is to prepare new employees for work at the new plant. In conjunction with Chattanooga State and Tennessee Tech, the Academy also offers an Industrial Technology degree and an apprenticeship program. “We are very pleased that the Volkswagen Academy has been Platinum LEED Certified because this reflects the level of excellence that we expect and produce in the academy,” said Hans-Herbert Jagla, EVP of Human Resources.

The Volkswagen Chattanooga plant produces the all-new 2012 Passat, which has recently been named Motor Trend magazine’s 2012 Car of the Year, as well as having earned the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) Top Safety Pick rating, the highest possible from the non-profit safety research organization. The Passat TDI – the