By Clay McCombe, Program Manager with the Denver Regional Council of Governments
I’ve brought a lot of crazy ideas to Brendle Group over the past four years. A state HVAC license. A network where heat pump workforce stakeholders could actually convene and collaborate instead of working in silos. Publishing a report that specifically calls out how many jobs we need to fill in the building science trades in Colorado. Not once did they shut me down. Instead, they listened, gave honest feedback, and most often figured out a way forward. That’s the thing about this team that I don’t think enough people know. Judy and Brendle Group believed in me from the earliest stages of my career, and I would not be where I am today without their guidance along the way.
The proof of this is everywhere. The residential and commercial electrification workforce ecosystem analyses we published together gave Colorado its first real look at the workforce gap we’re facing. The Electrification Workforce Network went from an idea to a full coalition with a board spanning labor, higher ed, industry, apprenticeships, government, and utilities. We took a 50-plus page HVAC license proposal to DORA, hosted town halls with over 200 stakeholders, and even though the state said no, we got a conversation moving that Colorado had been avoiding for decades. Then came Power Ahead Colorado. Brendle Group helped assemble the coalition behind DRCOG’s winning $200M EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grant application, then spent the better part of a year facilitating the working groups that built the Colorado Contractor Hub, the Green Workforce Hubs, and our Growth Access Programs (all three of which are real now). We have over 100 licensed contractors on the Contractor Hub, five Green Workforce Hubs are live and aiming for 3,800 new workers by 2030, and heat pump training coming to Spanish-speaking, justice-impacted, and young adult Coloradans.
The thing I’d point to last is probably the least flashy one. For two years now, Brendle Group has gotten Xcel Energy, DRCOG, Rewiring America, the Collective Clean Energy Fund, and the Colorado Energy Office in the same room on a regular basis through the Building Decarbonization Network. Anyone who has worked in this space knows how rare that is. These are five huge entities with their own funding, their own timelines, and their own priorities, and somehow the programs keep coming out complementary instead of duplicative. Xcel Energy supporting DRCOG’s Colorado Contractor Hub so it could go statewide is the clearest example I can give. That doesn’t happen without someone doing the unglamorous work of keeping everyone talking.
Happy 30th, Brendle Group. Thanks for taking my calls, entertaining my moonshot ideas, and showing up for our community in more ways than you know.
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About the Author – Clay McCombe is a Program Manager at the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) and a founding team member of Power Ahead Colorado, a $200M EPA-funded regional clean energy initiative. His portfolio spans the Colorado Contractor Hub, Green Workforce Hubs, three Growth Access Programs, and the Electrification Workforce Network, connecting contractors, training providers, and regional partners across the Denver metro. A passionate advocate for dignified work and climate action, Clay brings a background in workforce development and a hands-on approach to growing the heat pump trade in Colorado.
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