Introduction: The relationship between FDI and the environment has been an important research topic for many years. The main reason for this is that FDI has a different impact on the environmental conditions of each country. Aim: The study aims to determine the asymmetric effects of foreign direct investments on the ecological footprint in Turkey. In addition, another objective of the study is to determine whether the investments in Turkey are perceived as a pollution haven or not. Method: In the 1970-2022 annual data study, the ecological footprint variable was included as the dependent variable, and foreign direct investments as the independent variable. The Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) method was used to identify asymmetric effects in the study. Findings: The findings show that FDI has an asymmetric effect on the ecological footprint only in the long run. The positive shocks in FDI increase the ecological footprint, while negative shocks decrease the ecological footprint. These results are an essential indicator that investments in Turkey have a negative impact on the ecological footprint in the long run. Originality and value: The study is considered to contribute to the literature as it is a study that examines the relationship between ecological footprint and FDI in Turkey in the context of asymmetric effects. In addition, while many studies in the literature use carbon emissions as an indicator of environmental degradation, a more inclusive variable, ecological footprint, is utilized here.