Read the full article: https://www.marketplace.org/story/2025/10/15/colorado-program-aims-to-create-rural-climate-workforce

When NPR's Marketplace turned its attention to the rural climate workforce, it told a story that Lyra has been living for years: the green economy isn't just a coastal phenomenon, and the workers who will power it aren't just engineers with four-year degrees. They're electricians, pipefitters, solar installers, and HVAC technicians — and rural communities need them urgently.

This feature follows students at a groundbreaking new HVAC training program in Eagle, Colorado, where building systems contractor R&H Mechanical partnered with Colorado Mountain College to grow the workers they couldn't find anywhere else. As R&H VP of Operations Tim Braun put it simply: 'We have to grow our own.' That spirit — communities investing in their own people to meet a climate future they're already living — is exactly what Lyra's work is built around.

Lyra's Elizabeth Harbaugh is quoted directly in the piece, connecting the dots between rural resilience, economic sustainability, and the green skills that will define the next generation of work:

"When we look at resilience in rural regions, we need to be thinking what does it look like to be socially sustainable, economically sustainable, and environmentally sustainable."— Elizabeth Harbaugh, VP at Lyra Colorado, as quoted in NPR's Marketplace

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The article also highlights the scale of the challenge. Colorado state data show that the skilled trades worker shortage is most severe in rural areas — the same communities most exposed to the impacts of climate change. Megan Christensen of the Colorado Energy Office put it plainly: in almost every climate and energy action the state has, skilled trades are essential to getting it done.