Brian Pullen developed the university’s climate action plan which aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. He resigned from his role as sustainability planner and will soon be replaced. Courtesy of USF St. Petersburg
By Anna Bryson
Brian Pullen, the university’s first full-time sustainability planner, has resigned after almost three years.
Pullen’s work in the Office of Sustainability has expanded sustainability efforts by implementing projects and initiatives in collaboration with the community.
Under his management, the university achieved LEED certifications for Lynn Pippenger Hall and for the Warehouse Lab Building on campus. LEED, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a certification program focused on commercial-buildings’ environmental friendliness and energy efficiency.
Pullen also developed the university’s climate action plan in partnership with the city of St. Petersburg, which aims to reduce baseline greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2035 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
“Brian has been the lead staff person on this campus on driving us toward the combined efforts with Student Government to position us as a lead campus in the USF system in terms of our sustainability efforts,” Regional Chancellor Martin Tadlock said. “That is one of our signature areas here and he has been a major force in becoming that.”
Pullen’s work established a campus culture around sustainability and brought together the sustainability efforts between student organizations and administration.
Outside of campus, he established partnerships in developing long-term sustainability strategies with the Patel College of Global Sustainability, the city of St. Petersburg, Duke Energy and Pinellas County.
“All the clubs and communities were kind of each doing their own thing,” Pullen said. “Let’s all work together under one umbrella under the Office of Sustainability, and see what we can do in ways of not just bettering our environment but bettering our campus culture here.”
Although previously reported that the future of the sustainability planner role was uncertain, Tadlock confirmed that administration is working on a job description and will start a search to find a replacement.
“(Sustainability) is going to continue to be one of the three themes that represent us and give us our distinctiveness so that’s not going to change,” Tadlock said. “It’s going to drive us in the direction that we need to go and becoming carbon neutral by 2050 and our work with the city and in our research and curricular programming.”
“I’ve really pushed for better inclusion between the three campuses,” Pullen said. “I think that that will be a good opportunity for the next person coming in here to build that relationship with the Tampa campus and Sarasota-Manatee.”
Pullen got his master’s degree in global sustainability from USF Tampa and soon after accepted the job of sustainability planner at USF St. Petersburg.
“I’ll always be a bull,” he said. “Coming here, it’s a different feel on this campus and I’ve embraced it and I’ve loved it.”
Pullen’s next venture will be as sustainability manager for Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, California.
“I’m at a point where I’m ready to grow and right now. I came in and got all the projects and programs done that I wanted to,” he said. “There was no hard feelings in terms of leaving the institution. I’ve seen it grow quite a bit and just the amount of support from students, faculty and staff that I’ve gotten, that’s what’s going to make it hard to leave all this.”
