Meet the Funga Team: Sydney Davenport

Get to know the Funga crew with this newest installment of our "Meet the Team" series. Come back monthly to meet more team members, hear about their journey to Funga, and understand their vital role in our community.

We’re big fans of the “Today I get to….” mentality. So, what do you get to do every day at Funga?

As Funga's Senior Business Development Manager, I get to connect companies that have climate commitments with the work Funga is doing on the ground. I get to translate all of the incredible science, data, and forestry work happening across our team and help tell the story of what we're building. I get to learn how different companies are thinking about their emissions and figure out where nature-based carbon removals fit into their goals. One day I'm deep in the weeds on specific tree measurements, and the next I'm zooming out to carbon sequestration forecasts past 2040.

If you had to explain what Funga does to a third grader, what would you say?

In our bodies, we have good microbes that keep us healthy and bad microbes that make us sick. Trees work the same way. They need good microbes to be healthy and grow strong, and a lot of the forests we work in have lost that over time. Funga is working to bring it back.

Tell us a little bit about your life. How did it lead you to Funga?

Growing up I spent a lot of time outdoors and fell in love with nature early on. I was the kid out in the back fields looking for frogs. As I got older I realized I could turn that into a career and got my degree in environmental science with a major in agrology, which is where I first fell down the rabbit hole of soil science and the world underneath our feet.

During university I spent my summers in Alberta doing spill response, groundwater monitoring, and amphibian surveys (aka going out to wetlands at the crack of dawn to listen for which toad species were calling, so cool!) After graduating I moved into environmental consulting, doing everything from environmental site assessments to radioactive pipeline scans. Eventually I started to wonder: how do we stop these problems from happening in the first place rather than just cleaning them up when they do?

That question led me into agriculture tech, where I worked on improving food security in high-tech greenhouse growing systems. It was my first real taste of how technology could be used to solve environmental problems at scale.

From there I landed in the carbon markets, helping companies invest in reforestation projects that supported smallholder farmers in Latin America. That's where the voluntary carbon market really clicked for me. Seeing companies put real resources behind their climate commitments and watching that translate to impact on the ground showed me just how much this market can move the needle on climate action.

My through line has always been the same: how do we work with nature instead of against it? Every role added a piece, and they all show up at Funga. We're rooted in what nature already knows how to do, we use technology to do it better and faster, and the carbon markets are how we scale that impact. It all fits together in a way that feels pretty full circle.

What is your favorite part of the job?

The people and the mission. There are so many cool backgrounds and perspectives on this team, which makes solving hard problems a lot more fun. We have all types of scientists, foresters, and business experts all pulling in the same direction, and there's a real energy that comes from that.

What is one workflow/productivity tool or trick that you can’t live without?

I recently discovered a tool called Wispr Flow and I'm a convert. A big part of my job is writing, whether that's emails, proposals, or internal updates, and typing long paragraphs sometimes gets in the way of my natural flow. With Wispr Flow I just speak out loud and it types for me. I get ideas down faster, the writing actually sounds like how I talk, and I'm not losing my train of thought trying to keep up with my fingers. If you do any kind of writing in your job, I'd recommend trying it.

What trivia round would you know every answer to?

How to make the tastiest backcountry meals, how to do everything wrong while growing tomatoes, or relating any real life situation back to Seinfeld.

Can you share a favorite memory of/with the Funga team?

Being in the field with landowners and hearing about why they do what they do was really special. It reinforced the deep appreciation we all share for the land and the fact that we're working to keep it in the hands of the people who are stewarding it.

And if you ever find yourself on a boat with the Funga team, "I'm on a Boat" will be played. No question.