Speed & Scale

An Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis Now

By: John Doerr, Ryan Panchadsaram

Narrated by: John Doerr, Sundar Pichai, Margot Brown, Badri Kothandaraman, Bruce Nilles, Jagdeep Singh, Laurene Powell Jobs, Jan Van Dokkum, Christiana Figueres, Fred Krupp

#1 bestselling author and acclaimed venture capitalist John Doerr reveals a sweeping action plan to conquer humanity’s greatest challenge: climate change.

In 2006, John Doerr was moved by Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and a challenge from his teenage daughter: “Dad, your generation created this problem. You better fix it.” Since then, Doerr has searched for solutions to this existential problem—as an investor, an advocate, and a philanthropist.

Fifteen years later, despite breakthroughs in batteries, electric vehicles, plant-based proteins, and solar and wind power, global warming continues to get worse. Its impact is all around us: droughts, floods, wildfires, the melting of the polar ice caps. Our world is squarely in a climate crisis and on the brink of a climate disaster.

Yet despite our state of emergency, climate change has yet to be tackled with the urgency and ambition it demands. More than ever, we need a clear course of action.

What if the goal-setting techniques that powered the rise of today's most innovative organizations were brought to bear on humanity's greatest challenge? Fueled by a powerful tool called Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), SPEED & SCALE offers an unprecedented global plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions before it’s too late. Used by Google, Bono’s ONE foundation, and thousands of startups the world over, OKRs have scaled ideas into achievements that changed the world. With clear-eyed realism and an engineer’s precision, Doerr identifies the measurable OKRs we need to reduce emissions across the board and to arrive by 2050 at net zero—the point where we are no longer adding to the heat-trapping carbon in the atmosphere.

By turns pragmatic and inspiring, SPEED & SCALE intersperses Doerr’s wide-ranging analysis with firsthand accounts from Jeff Bezos, Christiana Figueres, Al Gore, Mary Barra, Bill Gates, and other intrepid policy leaders, entrepreneurs, scientists, and activists. A launchpad for those who are ready to act now, this book is geared to leaders in every walk of life. With a definitive action plan, the latest science, and a rising climate movement on our side, we can still reach net zero before it is too late. But as Doerr reminds us, there is no more time to waste.


* This audiobook includes a downloadble PDF of images and charts from the book.

A catapult for ending the climate emergency

This is a good audiobook and a very good listen. More than that, it offers a much needed framework and set of mechanisms for resisting the momentum of our growing environmental problems and gaining fast global traction for resolving them. I’ll be returning to this work many times in the coming years.

Must read

Highlights every important aspect for solving our climate challenges and provides great insights for great actions. It seems like the book took a lot to be put together and I value that a lot. Thank you

Action-inspiring

John, Thank you so much for putting your heart and soul into this fabulous project!!

Current and upcoming leaders: must read & apply!

I truly believe in the power of OKRs. Put brilliant minds and possibilits behind and a world-class impacting strategy get created! thank you so much.

Hopeful Realistic & Challenging

It has been a long time since I have felt hopeful about the possibility of effectively addressing the daunting problem of climate change. While not minimizing the challenges, Doerr's outline of 10 broad Objectives (in the sectors of Transportation, Energy production, Agricultural, Industry, carbon removal, Nature protection, Innovation and Investment) fleshed out with 53 more detailed Key Results provides a realistic plan for how to accomplish the transition to net zero emissions on the scale and with the speed required. The book also explores the importance of both environmental justice initiatives and large scale investments by venture capitalists, banks, governments, non-profits and othrrs. it is surprising to me to find such a broad approach in one volume. While there are enormous political, social, and logistical problems ahead, the detailed descriptions of how key entrepreneurs and corporations are finally rising to the challenge is encouraging.