IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF BUILT ENVIRONMENT TOWARDS NET ZERO: CASE FOR Turkey

Buildings are responsible for approximately 30-40% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Throughout the life cycle of a building, namely, raw material extraction, manufacturing of construction materials, transportation to construction site, implementation, use phase, and end of life, there also have great negative impacts on environment. After United Nations Climate Change Conference, held in November 2021, Turkey committed a net zero target by 2053 and up to 21 % reduction in GHG emissions from Business as Usual (BAU) level by 2030. To measure and to decide whether the reduction is made and the target of"net zero" is achieved, built environment and whole construction process should be considered and monitored. Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) approach provides tools and methods that can be applicable to Built-Environment. This paper aims to answer the questions: "Is Turkey ready to reach this net zero target?" and "What is situation of Turkey in the world in terms of impact assessment research of built environment?" To accomplish that paper covers a broad comparison of conference papers, articles and dissertations on environmental impact published in Turkey and the world. Besides comparing these, Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs ), legislations and National Tools/ Applications introduced in Turkey are compared and evaluated. To collect the data both national databases for publications and dissertations is used together with ProQuest and Web of Science. National, Turkish tools such as Yes TR (National Green Certificate System) and Bep TR (Building Energy Performance) are also analyzed in terms of their contribution to net zero target. This paper shows that local and national contributions is very important to deal with a global problems like climate change and negative environmental impacts underlying the importance of Environmental Product Declarations, national methodologies, certifications, databases, and tools to measure and monitor the emissions and impacts of built environment and construction materials.