About episode
My favorite read in the last couple years by far is a book called Speed & Scale. We know there’s been a massive mobilization of capital, talent and attention to address climate change, but how do we know if it’ll be enough?
Speed & Scale offers a clear, sector by sector, action plan and online tracker of what we need to do to cut emissions in half by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. It’s incredibly well researched, packed with data and inspiration, and it uses the tried and tested system of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to create clear goals that add up to a comprehensive plan.
Some quick context for you:
OKRs became a popular management system after venture capital investor John Doerr introduced them to Google in 1999. John wrote about OKRs in his book Measure What Matters. He’s long been a leading climate investor and donor, and recently gave $1.1 billion dollars to found Stanford’s new School of Sustainability.
Bringing the OKR framework to create a global action plan for climate was an ambitious and much needed effort that can help inform climate action.
For today’s episode, I spoke with Ryan Panchadsaram and Anjali Grover. Ryan is a special advisor to John Doerr, and is the co-author of Speed & Scale. Anjali is Partner and Managing Director of Speed & Scale, overseeing the ongoing initiative to accelerate and track progress against the OKRs. We cover a lot of ground – from high level to nitty gritty, from code red OKRs where progress isn’t being made to real reasons for optimism, and of course, also, what this all means for everyday people who care about climate change. Enjoy.
In today’s episode, we cover:
- [5:01] What is Speed & Scale and how it came about
- [7:36] The key objectives covered in Speed & Scale
- [11:51] Objective example: electrifying transportation
- [15:14] Speed & Scale‘s tracker tool and the current status on climate
- [19:55] The state of large scale investments – what else is needed
- [24:35] Reasons for hope
- [27:25] Lessons and insights from being in the investor space
- [31:25] How close can we get to accomplishing the 10 OKRs
- [35:39] How did the Inflation Reduction Act shift what needs to get done
- [39:44] The most important thing people can do right now
What is Speed & Scale and how it came about
Speed & Scale is one of the most comprehensive action plans to date for tackling climate change.
The plan is delivered through a book and website that guides you through the question of “How do we take the 59 billion tonnes of emissions down to zero?” It uses a goal-setting framework called Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), in which initial draft OKRs have been iterated upon through dialogue with experts including policymakers, activists, entrepreneurs, engineers and others to uncover what’s missing, what needs to be done, and what measures matter the most.
Born from a series of conversations with John Doerr and the Speed & Scale team, and a process of remote collaboration that took place during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Speed & Scale lays out 10 objectives, 55 key results, 35 stories, and insights from 110 different experts for climate action. It’s packed with clear numbers and inspirational stories about how we can work together to address climate change—and it’s got all the resources you need to make it happen.
The key objectives covered in Speed & Scale
The key objectives of Speed & Scale’s action plan are broken down into solutions and accelerants. In the solution areas, sources of emissions are the primary focus. Anjali says that electrifying transportation is a pretty well trodden territory. Most folks know that we need to electrify our cars and our heavy duty vehicles, but we’ve also got to uncover sustainable aviation fuel and find ways of making long-haul shipping more carbon friendly. We need to decarbonize our grid – most folks will think of wind and solar, but we’ve also got to find other zero emission ways of powering our society. The third objective is really around fixed food. While eating less beef and dairy is typical to point out in the solutions discourse, there are other things to consider. We’ve got to find ways of making low emission fertilizers, which are very carbon intensive and have other greenhouse gas issues associated with them as well. There’s also a huge amount of methane emissions that come from food waste; an estimated 33 to 40% of the food that’s produced today ends up in the landfill, so we’ve got to figure out how to waste less food that comes from both the consumption end of things, but also further up the chain, mostly in developing countries where we see more problems around storage and transport. The fourth objective is to protect nature. We’ve got to clean up industry, which really means taking those hard to abate sectors like cement and steelmaking and figuring out how to make them more clean. We know that the world is going to continue to grow over the next 30 years, so not producing is not an option. We’ve got to figure out how to do those things in a cleaner, greener way. And lastly, we’ve got to remove carbon, because even if we try as we may on all of the other fronts, we’re going to be left with 10 gigatons of emissions that we’ve got to figure out what to do with. The action plan calls for a mixture of both nature-based removal, as well as engineered carbon removal to address those remaining emissions.
Ryan says that the first six objectives will get us from 59 billion tons of emissions to zero, but if we do that in the next 100 years, that’s too slow. We’ve got to get to zero by 2050 and find a way to cut our emissions in half this decade, so Speed & Scale is leaning on four accelerants to get us there and get those first six objectives to move faster. The first is winning the politics and policy; this is having countries not only make commitments vocally, but passing the legislation needed to accelerate the transition. Secondly, we have to turn movements into action everywhere from the ballot box to the boardroom. To make climate a top voting issue, we need to get in the elected leaders that prioritize, as well as take action on the issue. Companies themselves should make these commitments as well and Ryan emphasizes that every Fortune 500 company should have an aggressive climate and carbon emissions commitment. Third, we have to innovate and the real true measure around innovation is the ability to drive down the cost of clean green technologies across the board. Finally, we’ve got to invest like our lives depend on it. We’ve got to have more research and development dollars, we’ve got to get more venture capital dollars, we’ve got to get more project financing dollars, and even more philanthropic dollars into the space.
Resources Mentioned
- Speed & Scale
- Speed & Scale Tracker – Objectives & Key Results
- Speed & Scale Action Guide
- United Nations: Emissions Gap Report 2020
Connect with Ryan Panchadsaram and Anjali Grover
Connect With Jason Rissman
Subscribe to Invested In Climate
