This is the first story in a three-part series, ‘Greener Pastures,’ which explores climate workforce development in rural Colorado.
Coloradans take pride in knowing our mountain towns are little slices of paradise. But apparently, even heaven needs its industrial zones. In the town of Eagle, that’s where you’ll find the headquarters for R & H Mechanical, a building systems contractor serving the High Country, in a metal-sided building tucked in next to I-70.
On the upper level, service manager and instructor Josh McCarrel stood at the front of a long, narrow room that read like a cross between a classroom and a maintenance closet. Boilers, furnaces and exposed piping crowded the whiteboards and desks. But the odd design of the space suited his purpose well as a training facility for emerging HVAC technicians.
In this Level 1 HVAC course, McCarrel was lecturing about the basics of electricity.
“So, ‘AC’ stands for…. Anybody?” McCarrel prompted his class.
“Alternating current,” several students droned.
“Alternating current. Yes,” McCarrel confirmed. “’DC’ stands for…?”
“Direct Current,” the students responded.
In this simple way, McCarrel was laying the groundwork for his students to understand the complex world of heating and cooling technology. In a few months, they will turn their attention to working with heat pumps—super energy-efficient heating and cooling systems powered by electricity instead of natural gas.
Andrea Anderson, who works as a quotes administrator for R & H, was taking the class to improve her skills on the job. She planned to continue her studies through the end of the 4-unit course and expected a nice pay bump after mastering the material.
“When I started, I really knew nothing about heating and air conditioning,” Anderson said. “Over the years I’ve learned a lot. But now I just want to learn some more.”
Anderson and her classmates aren’t just earning credentials and building their careers. According to Megan Christensen, the climate workforce development manager at the Colorado Energy Office, they are also becoming part of the state’s big picture plan to combat climate change.
“Colorado is committed to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in the state by 2050,” Christensen told KUNC. “The state has a concrete multi-sector climate action plan to achieve this goal, which includes climate workforce development.”
In fact, Christensen said, getting more skilled tradespeople trained up is one of the top climate workforce priorities for the state of Colorado.
“In almost every single energy and climate action that our state has, the skilled trades are super essential to making sure that work gets done,” she said.
Talent in the high country
The skilled tradespeople needed for that essential climate workforce are in particularly short supply in Colorado’s High Country, and McCarrel’s HVAC Tech class is among the first major efforts to change that. It’s part of a massive push by Colorado Mountain College to establish a local skilled trades workforce training system.
“Up here in the mountains, the choice (has been) either to go to Denver or Grand Junction for a trade school,” McCarrel said. “What we hope to build with (Colorado Mountain College) is a resource here up in the mountains that (students) can still go home every night. They can maybe keep their job and get some formal training in a trade that is in high demand.”
It’s an important goal for Tim Braun, the vice president of operations at R & H Mechanical.
“Here in the mountains, it’s been challenging to find new talent,” Braun said. “So, we have to grow our own.”
The company was so eager to grow their own talent that they partnered with the college to build the HVAC Tech course series McCarrel has been teaching, which provides graduates with nationally recognized credentials. Braun said he’s eager to hire technicians who have the advanced skills being taught in the classroom, like replacing gas-burning heating and cooling systems with heat pumps.
“There’s been a big gap in our workforce development that we need to pick up,” Braun said. “More talent to be able to help with that transition in the future.”
Jim Jones, program director for skilled crafts and trades at Colorado Mountain College, is the force behind the school’s new, robust skilled trades program, which also includes pathways in automotive, welding, carpentry and ski area operations.
“Over the last several years, the institution has essentially grown its trades department 700%,” he told KUNC.
The trades courses have become so popular that there are now waitlists to enroll, and Jones has big plans to more than double capacity.
“We’re broadening our reach for trades across the Central Rockies,” Jones said. “That’s the call right now of the mountain communities. We’re all looking for more tradesmen and women to take care of our mountain communities.”
The program wouldn’t just supply mountain towns with the climate workforce they desperately need. It would also supply more graduates with career paths that are lucrative and sustainable in notoriously expensive areas like Eagle Valley.
“You name the trade and there’s people hiring and the pay is good,” Jones said. “From HVAC to automotive, to carpentry, to welding, all wages have gone up tremendously, just due to the fact that there’s a severe shortage of workforce.”
Climate change as a rural issue
Developing a robust climate workforce is essential in Colorado’s rural areas because of the region’s high exposure to the effects of a warming climate.
“We know that our rural communities are experiencing the impacts of climate change at an accelerated rate,” said Elizabeth Harbaugh, vice president of Lyra Colorado, a Northwest Colorado nonprofit in the education and climate space. “It’s an issue that is impacting all parts of life and their economies.”
After all, Harbaugh pointed out, the state’s rural communities revolve around agriculture and outdoor recreation.
“We work with ranchers up in Northwest Colorado who can speak very openly about the lack of water and how that’s changed their outputs over the past 10 years,” Harbaugh said. “Then when you talk about recreation, snowpack is a huge issue.”
The natural resources threatened by drought, excessive heat and wildfires don’t just power rural economies, they define the region’s culture and identity. According to Harbaugh, that’s why it’s important for these communities to be engaged in climate solutions, like training the emerging climate workforce.
“Living and working in those communities means understanding the impacts that climate change is having,” she said. “Green jobs and green skills are that next frontier of understanding what it’s going to take for all jobs to adapt in the face of a changing climate.”
This story was supported by the Higher Education Media Fellowship at the Institute for Citizens & Scholars.