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Sustainability in The Era of Türkiye

Transformation in Buildings

Buildings that provide many services such as housing, accommodation,
business, health, education and entertainment consume a great amount
of energy, use resources and create waste. In Türkiye, which has a very old
building stock and is located in an important earthquake zone, an urban
transformation mobilization was launched in 2012 at the first stage, and in this
process, 3.2 million houses were transformed, which means the reconstruction
of Ankara province, and it was rendered mandatory to provide insulation in
buildings for energy efficiency, and smart building concepts were highlighted
in order to act in harmony with the developing technology.
On the other side, the green building certification (YES) system specific to
Türkiye, which represents that the materials and energy, water and other wastes
used in the construction of buildings are in harmony with the environment, has
been developed, and almost zero energy building (nSEB) was emphasized
and application examples were initiated. On the other side, it was facilitated
for buildings to generate their own energy by exempting rooftop GPPs from
the obligation to obtain the license, and in addition, rainwater harvesting was
rendered mandatory in the structures to be built on parcels over 2 thousand
square meters, ensuring the protection of natural water resources (Ministry of
Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change of the Republic of Türkiye, 2022).
Likewise, in 2008, in order to use energy and energy resources effectively
and efficiently in buildings and prevent energy waste, the Regulation on Energy
Performance in Buildings was issued by the Ministry and the practice of the
energy identity certificate representing the energy status of the building was
initiated. Also, the project of Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings (KABEV) was
launched in cooperation with the World Bank, and the efficient use of energy
was ensured with the transformations achieved in public buildings providing
services in health, education and administrative areas, thus preventing
greenhouse gas emissions caused by around 50 thousand vehicles on an
annual basis (KABEV, 2022).
Moreover, the widespread use of district heating systems and the use
of waste heat of energy-intensive sectors and waste energy of geothermal
energy production facilities in areas such as district heating have prevented
emissions, improved air quality and resulted in more effective use of natural
resources. Currently, 150 thousand houses benefit from district heating
facilities, but researches conducted by the Ministry show that it is also possible
to heat around 1 million houses in Türkiye in this way.
Additionally, based on the results of the strategic air quality map developed
by the Ministry, support has been given to the transformation in domestic
heating systems of the individual consumers, in priority regions, who use

Year 2 / Issue 3 / January 2023 15