Arathi Gowda leads ZGF’s East Coast Sustainability Practice and is a firmwide resource for sustainable design integration. She founded Yes Praxes, established in 2021 to help accelerate a just climate transition and has taught coursework on sustainable urbanism at multiple universities. Currently she is adjunct faculty at Northwestern University’s Institute for Sustainability and Energy. An advocate for collective climate action she chairs the climate pledge US Architects Declare and is a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Government Advocacy Committee.

Gowda has been honored with the individual Chapter Mission Award from Illinois Green (2016) and named one of ten recipients of Green Building & Design’s Women in Sustainability Leadership Award (2019). Recently she was appointed to Mayor Lightfoot’s Chicago Building Decarbonization task force (2021) and the Design 50: Awarded to the top 50 designers in Chicago (2022).