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

Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

Number one best-selling 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 start-ups 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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 John Doerr (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“This book is a critical blueprint for anyone looking to take concrete steps to reach net-zero emissions. Unlike many who simply issue ambiguous long-dated pledges to help solve the climate crisis, John Doerr understands the urgent need to ACT quickly and decisively. With Speed & Scale, he combines his extensive experience as a legendary technology expert and investor with his tried-and-true management methods to put forward a clear, detailed, and comprehensive plan for climate action exactly when we need it most.” - Al Gore, former U.S. Vice President

"John Doerr is a man with a plan for our planet – and boy do we need one. Keep away if you don’t think commerce can play a creative role… or want deep dive analytics from someone who is always measuring what matters. He matters."- Bono

"John Doerr is the world’s leading mind on turning truly audacious goals into objectives and key results. In this culminating contribution, he performs an inspired act of world leadership: plying his craft to create a comprehensive plan to tackle one of the most vexing challenges in human history."- Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and Built to Last