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Skylar Funk was originally Skylar Boorman but legally altered his surname to Funk — in honor of his deceased mother’s maiden name — just prior to registering at USC. “I’d been using it as a stage name since 2011,” he remarks. “Skylar Funk is more appropriate as a music educator.” (Photo: Colleen Allison)
Alumni
Sustainability Star: Skylar Funk
COMMENCEMENT: Skylar Funk MA ’25 — a prominent rock artist and climate campaigner — has contributed to making USC a more eco-friendly institution as graduate co-chair of the Student Sustainability Committee.
In the spring of 2016, the Los Angeles-based indie band Trapdoor Social performed at McCarthy Quad on the USC University Park Campus. The lunchtime show featured an environmentally conscious element: The band’s gear was fully operated by solar energy.
Lead vocalist Skylar “Sky” Funk and his Trapdoor Social co-founder Merritt Graves had recently invested in a touring trailer equipped with solar panels on the roof and a battery bank inside. The 3.5 kilowatts of energy produced was sufficient to power the musicians’ subwoofers, speakers, amplifiers, instruments, and LED lighting cleanly for hours.
The duo was motivated by a wish to make performances more eco-friendly and to spark environmental consciousness through their music. “We envisioned an idealistic space where music and sustainability could harmonize,” Funk states.
Presently, Funk continues to tour with Trapdoor Social while pursuing his dual interests in music and sustainability — now as a freshly minted Trojan alum. This month, he graduated with a master’s degree in popular music education from the USC Thornton School of Music.
During his tenure at USC, Funk held the position of graduate co-chair of the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC), the student group of the Presidential Working Group (PWG) on Sustainability in Education, Research, and Operations. The SSC implements various projects under the Assignment: Earth sustainability initiative and makes suggestions to the university’s leadership regarding sustainability education, research, and campus operations issues.
Funk’s passion for enhancing USC’s ecological footprint has been as contagious as his band’s rhythms.
“Sky takes a collaborative, open-minded approach in his interactions with stakeholders, which ensures the students’ perspective is acknowledged,” affirms Mick Dalrymple, USC’s chief sustainability officer. “He also guides students to suggest well-researched solutions rather than taking the easier route of simply expressing concerns. Through this additional value, in conjunction with his resilience, Sky aids students in earning respect and achieving their long-term sustainability goals.
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goals.”
Music with Influence
Funk brought over ten years of experience in climate advocacy to his position on the SSC.
The singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist was raised in the Seattle region. While studying at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., he met Graves in the environmental analysis curriculum and became active in the environmental movement in L.A.
“We felt an urgent calling towards sustainability,” Funk states. “We aimed to save the planet.”
The duo envisioned Trapdoor Social in 2011 as a creative initiative with ecological significance. Numerous tracks by the band — such as “Winning As Truth” and “Never Stop Listening” — carry climate-conscious messages. In 2013, they allocated the net earnings from a crowdfunding campaign for their second EP to install solar panels on the rooftop of Homeboy Industries, a Los Angeles nonprofit devoted to changing the lives of former gang members and those who have been incarcerated.
By that time, the band was touring across the nation and searching for methods to minimize the carbon footprint of their travels — their approach to “defending the Earth,” Skylar says. The solar trailer, acquired in 2015, served as a means to utilize clean energy not only for their concerts but also for events linked to the environmental cause, such as Youth Climate Strike Los Angeles gatherings.
In June 2016, they founded and organized the inaugural Sunstock Solar Festival — a nonprofit, indie-rock music and art festival powered by several solar generators in Los Angeles. They later took the festival nationwide, beginning in Berkeley, California; UC Berkeley students still host the festival to this day.
Funk’s ambition was to leverage the power of music and community to ignite climate action. “It’s an ongoing journey to determine how to inspire people to be as enthusiastic about environmental action as they are about attending concerts,” Funk remarks.
Greening USC
Upon arriving at USC as a master’s student in fall 2023, Funk expressed his admiration for USC President Carol Folt’s “significant leadership on sustainability.” The zero-waste initiative at the University Park Campus and at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum particularly thrilled him. The Sustainability Hub, a collaborative area that opened in September 2023 on the University Park Campus, became his base at USC.
He applied for and was chosen to join the SSC that year. As the graduate co-chair for the 2024-25 academic year, Funk steered significant initiatives. He led a project analyzing how waste is sorted by users of the multistream waste diversion bins at USC University Park Campus, which have slots for landfill, compost, and recycling, and championed various initiatives to aid USC in reaching its Zero Waste goal.
In 2021, the Investment Committee of the USC Board of Trustees decided to halt new investments in fossil fuels and to divest current holdings in fossil fuels over the upcoming years. After Funk and others advocated for enhanced transparency in this process, the USC Investment Office committed to creating biannual fact sheets to inform the USC community.
Funk also highlighted that the divestment from USC’s fossil fuel investments was not included among the objectives in the Assignment: Earth framework, and inquired about its inclusion. Both the PWG and the Investment Committee concurred on its necessity. The revised framework is expected to be published this month.
“Sky’s enthusiasm encourages people’s excitement and dedication to tackling sustainability issues and doing so as a community,” states Hannah Findling, sustainability program administrator in the USC Office of the President and USC Office of Sustainability, and a liaison to the SSC. “He’s an exceptional leader.”
Diverse Career
As Funk gears up to launch a music-teaching career, he intends to continue producing music and touring with Trapdoor Social, among other opportunities. Last year, the band entered into their first recording contract with Pasadena Records, building on their success opening for the B-52s during their 2019 European tour. Fred Schneider, the B-52s’ lead vocalist, lent his voice to the track “Prophit” on Trapdoor Social’s recent album, Echobloom, released last year.
Funk — who communicates and composes lyrics in French, Spanish, and Portuguese along with English — is currently applying for a Fulbright Award to study music education in Brazil and seeks teaching positions in popular music in L.A. He aspires to infuse sustainability themes into his teaching and keep merging art with activism.
“I’m in pursuit of nuggets of wisdom and knowledge that we can utilize to discover that magical formula for [climate] action,” he states.
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