Green Building and Green Retrofitting in the Context of Sustainability: Green Retrofitting of Public Buildings

Excessive use of natural resources, especially energy resources, and the release of large amounts of harmful gases into nature are among the main causes of the environmental problems we face. The areas where natural resources are used intensively are undoubtedly cities. Ever-growing cities are being built in an unsustainable manner in order to meet the building demand. This situation further deepens the already severe environmental crisis. Indeed, conventional buildings seriously damage the environment throughout their life cycle (planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition). For this reason, green buildings, known as environmentally friendly buildings, are increasingly being promoted. However, when evaluated in terms of both public buildings and other buildings, the excess of existing building stock makes green retrofitting a better option than green building for now. In this context, the study was carried out by addressing the most emphasized topics (such as benefits, costs, certificates, and materials) of the research accessed from the ScienceDirect, Springer, and Taylor & Francis databases with the keywords green building and green retrofitting in relation to public buildings. The study focuses on the challenges facing the transformation of the building stock, especially public buildings, through environmentally friendly green retrofitting practices and strategies to combat these challenges. The study also briefly discusses the widely known green building certificates and the recently introduced YeS-TR green building certificates in Turkey. On the other hand, green building costs and green building materials, which affect the decisions in green building and green retrofitting, are discussed in the study due to their importance. As a result, the renovation of buildings, especially public buildings, with green retrofitting projects provides many benefits and also pays back the initial investment in a short time. For this reason, green retrofitting projects should be emphasized, especially in public buildings that consume a lot of energy and produce a lot of harmful emissions. It is also proposed to establish an administratively and financially autonomous central green empowerment administration and to organize it in the provinces.