When Tria Case ’84 began her career, sustainability was not yet a field—it was an idea waiting to be built.

“There were no sustainability or environmental law classes,” she recalls about her time at Brooklyn Law School. “If you wanted to do this work, you had to create it.”

Over the past three decades, that is exactly what she has done. As the University Executive Director of Sustainability and Energy Conservation for the City University of New York (CUNY), Tria has helped design one of the most expansive and ambitious sustainability efforts in higher education, spanning 300 buildings, 19 campuses, and nearly 1% of New York City’s total electrical load.

Her work rarely results in a visible object. She is not designing buildings or products in the traditional sense. Instead, she designs systems: policies, infrastructure plans, partnerships, energy strategies, and programs that shape how institutions function and how communities adapt to a changing world. It is work that requires imagination, practicality, and patience.