Leadership

A recognized leader in building design and construction, Yasemin has 20+ years of experience in design and implementation of innovative and net zero energy/carbon buildings. Proven expertise in sustainability policy/strategy to generate scalable solutions for net zero carbon developments and businesses.

She plays a central role in transforming the building industry’s response to climate change. She adopts a forward-thinking and holistic system approach to her projects that integrates well-being, environmental design, and the latest material and building technologies.

Over the past two decades, Yasemin has led the design and implementation of projects that exemplify this approach in a range of scales and geographies, from net zero energy, carbon neutral buildings to innovation projects developed for UN Climate Change Conferences. Among her most notable works is Urban Sequoia, a radical proposal for a carbon-sequestering high-rise, as well as Charenton-Bercy, Paris’s first net-zero-carbon district; the United States Census Bureau Headquarters in Maryland; the JTI headquarters in Geneva; and Karlatornet in Gothenburg—the tallest near zero energy tower in Scandinavia.

Yasemin founded and leads SOM’s firm wide Climate Action Group, which focuses on decarbonization of the firm’s projects and business. She co-led the firm’s efforts to achieve net zero carbon emissions in its operations in 2022 following SBTi methodology.

As an expert in sustainability, she co-chairs AIA’s Committee on the Environment in New York. She is a board member of Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization, founding board member of MEP2040, serves on AIA New York’s Honors Committee and Carbon Leadership Forum NY Steering Committee. She regularly participates in advisory boards shaping carbon and energy policies across New York and nationally.