The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between energy use, economic growth, and environmental pollution in Turkey for the period from 1968 to 2016 by using ARDL bounds test approach. Test findings show that an increase in economic growth and trade openness cause environmental degradation in all models. Although the energy consumption coefficient is positive in all models, it is statistically significant only in the model where the ecological footprint indicator is the dependent variable. Thus, while determining a positive relationship between environmental pollution and economic growth in Turkey, also it can be said that the energy consumption increases ecological footprint. The findings indicate that there is a need to consider not only pollution emissions but also the ecological footprint for environmental degradation. These results raise a number of policy recommendations for Turkey. The existence of an inverted-U shaped relationship between environmental degradation and economic growth actually demonstrate the successful long run sustainable growth in Turkey.