What is the Green Star for hotels in Türkiye, and where does it stand today?

The Green Star (Çevreye Duyarlı Konaklama Tesisi Belgesi) is a Ministry of Culture and Tourism certificate for accommodation facilities that meet environmental criteria on energy, water, chemicals, waste, training and wastewater. It rests on a communiqué published on 19 June 2017, is still in use, and is separate from the newer sustainability stage certificates.

A green plaque by the entrance, the words "Çevreye Duyarlı Tesis" under the stars, and a guest or an agency asking what it actually certifies. The answer is more specific than most hotels can give, and the rules around it changed in 2025 and 2026 without the plaque changing at all. After reading this you will know what the green star certificate hotel plaques refer to, whether yours is still current, and what to tell agencies and guests who ask.

What is the Green Star certificate, and who issues it?#

The Green Star is the Çevreye Duyarlı Konaklama Tesisi Belgesi, an environment-friendly accommodation certificate issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. It is granted on request, not automatically, and it is not a star rating.

The legal basis is the Communiqué on Issuing the Environment-Friendly Accommodation Facility Certificate, published in the Official Gazette on 19 June 2017, No. 30101, per the Ministry's communiqué text in the Official Gazette (opens in a new tab). A communiqué is a Ministry's published rule text. This one repealed communiqué 2008/3, so anything written about the older scheme is out of date. The certificate is also defined in the Regulation on the Qualifications of Tourism Facilities (Presidential Decision No. 1134), the same text that sets hotel types and classes; we explain that framework in how hotel stars are set in Türkiye.

Who may apply: accommodation facilities holding a Ministry tourism operation certificate or partial tourism operation certificate. The Green Star sits on top of the operation certificate; it never replaces it.

The process runs in a defined order. The hotel applies to the Ministry with a petition and a criteria application form. Classification committee members then apply the evaluation form on site. A facility that passes the minimum score for its type and class receives the certificate by Ministerial approval.

The plaque shows the facility's type and class in green, with the words "Çevreye Duyarlı Tesis". Because the plaque carries the star class, guests read it as a kind of star, which it is not.

What did the Green Star ask a hotel to prove?#

It asked for a working environmental system, not a purchase: a written policy and action plan reviewed every three months, measured consumption, a named responsible person, staff training, and wastewater that does not go to a septic tank.

The environmental policy and action plan must be reviewed every three months. The quarterly review is the mechanism: the file must show revisions over time, not one dated document written for the application. Alongside it, the hotel must carry out periodic measurement and monitoring of water, energy, chemicals and waste. The hotel sets the interval and must keep to it, so meters, readings and a simple register matter more than a consultant's report.

The communiqué also asks for a trained person or expert responsible for the plan: one name with a role, not a committee without an owner. Regular staff training is required, with dates and attendees on file; training that exists only in a slide deck does not survive an on-site evaluation. Wastewater must be disposed of through a system other than a septic tank, a sewer connection or a treatment system, with the route shown in the file.

Scoring is by type and class, so a five-star resort and a small pension are not measured against the same bar. The evaluation form is applied on site, not from a distance. Waste records overlap with the zero waste rules for hotels in Türkiye, which we cover separately.

Is the Green Star still in force today?#

Yes, as far as the record shows: we found no official text ending it, and the Ministry's provisional October 2026 statistics still count environment-friendly certified facilities. What changed is that the mandatory sustainability duties now sit in a different program.

The 2017 communiqué remains the legal basis. A search in November 2026 found no repealing text, and we say so plainly rather than guessing at an abolition. The Ministry's provisional October 2026 statistics still carry the certificate as a category of certified accommodation, counting 429 environment-friendly certified facilities with 132,727 rooms and 285,770 beds (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, environment-friendly certified accommodation statistics, October 2026, provisional). That shows the certificate is in use. It says nothing about growth, and we draw no trend from it.

The validity mechanics are unusual. The certificate has no fixed validity period and stays valid unless the Ministry decides otherwise. It lapses if the tourism or partial tourism operation certificate is cancelled. Holders are reclassified every two years: that reclassification is the real deadline in the file, and it is the one hotels forget because the certificate never shows an expiry date.

The common error is reading the 2025 and 2026 circulars on sustainability stages as the end of the Green Star. Those circulars set deadlines for a different certificate and do not repeal the 2017 communiqué.

How does it relate to the Environmental and Cultural Sustainability Program?#

They are two separate instruments: the Green Star is a voluntary Ministry certificate granted on request, while the Türkiye Çevresel ve Kültürel Sürdürülebilirlik Programı is a staged program with deadlines, three-year certificates and consequences under Law No. 2634.

The program runs in stages. Circular 2024/5 of 25 July 2024 set 31 December 2025 as the last date for two groups to obtain the Stage 2 certificate: tourism-operation-certified facilities required to hold Stage 1, and all simple-accommodation-certified facilities. Circular 2025/4 of 26 December 2025 recalled that deadline, and Circular 2026/2 of 16 April 2026 restated the same rules as mandatory, per the Ministry's Circular 2026/2 (16 April 2026) (opens in a new tab). Both were signed by the Minister.

Stage 1 holders obtain Stage 2 when their one-year Stage 1 certificate expires. Four- and five-star hotels, holiday villages, boutique hotels and special accommodation facilities submit the Stage 3 certificate when they apply for a tourism operation certificate and in any process that requires a certificate change. Other accommodation facilities submit the Stage 2 certificate in those processes.

Certification is carried out through firms authorised under conditions the Türkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency sets. The agency authorises the firms; it is not a party to your contract with them. Circular 2026/2 changed validity: Stage 2 and Stage 3 certificates are now valid for three years from the date of issue, and existing ones are to be amended to three years from their issue date. Recertification must start with an authorised firm before expiry and be renewed by the validity date. Facilities that do not meet the conditions face action under Law No. 2634. Confirm how the rules apply to your own facility, and the dates and consequences of your own case, with your legal adviser. The stages and duties are covered in detail in sustainable tourism certification for hotels in Türkiye.

What should a hotel with an old Green Star plaque do?#

Confirm the certificate is still current, put the two-year reclassification in the compliance calendar, and treat the stage duties as a separate file that the plaque does not cover.

Start with the foundation. Check that the tourism or partial tourism operation certificate is in force, because the Green Star lapses with it. Then find the date of the last evaluation and the next two-year reclassification, and record both next to the stage deadlines rather than in a separate folder nobody opens.

Check the plaque itself: type and class in green with "Çevreye Duyarlı Tesis". A plaque showing a class the facility no longer holds is a small but visible credibility problem.

Decide deliberately whether to keep the certificate. It is voluntary, so the question is whether the policy, quarterly reviews, measurements and training records are worth maintaining; if the same records already serve the stage program, the extra cost is small. Build one records system that answers both, but label the two certificates separately so nobody hands a Green Star file to an assessor asking for a stage certificate. The records and documents for the sustainable tourism certificate give a starting checklist for that file.

Never present the Green Star as the sustainability program certificate in an agency questionnaire, a tender or an institutional sustainability request.

What should you write on your website and in sales material?#

Name the certificate exactly, say who issued it and when it was last evaluated, and never let a reader think it is the national sustainability certificate or a star rating.

Use the Turkish name with a plain gloss: "Çevreye Duyarlı Konaklama Tesisi Belgesi (Green Star), issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism". Say what it covers and what it does not: energy, water, chemicals, waste, training and wastewater. It is not a carbon footprint measurement and not a star rating.

Give the date of the last evaluation or reclassification instead of the bare word "certified", which reads as permanent. If the hotel also holds a stage certificate, write two separate lines, each with its stage and its validity date.

Labels other than the Green Star exist, and each one has its own issuer, its own criteria and its own validity. Quote the issuer's own wording rather than paraphrasing it, and check any name you see, including international labels, against the body that issues it. Keep claims to what the certificate states: "sustainable hotel" as a standalone line is a claim you will be asked to evidence.

What to do next#

Pull the tourism operation certificate and the Green Star file, confirm the certificate is current, write down the next two-year reclassification, and put the stage deadlines from Circular 2026/2 in the same calendar. That single file check answers every question in this article: what the plaque means, whether it is still alive, and what it does not cover.