Speed and Scale Climate Action Plan
Turn a planetary goal into simultaneous, measurable climate campaigns
- Difficulty
- Expert
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 7
- Confidence
- 97%
Speed and Scale applies the OKR discipline to climate action. It begins with a quantified baseline—annual global greenhouse-gas emissions—and defines the ultimate objective of reaching net zero. The challenge is divided into six interconnected areas: transportation, the electrical grid, food, nature, industry, and carbon removal. Each objective receives three to five numeric, time-bound key results, producing a portfolio of roughly fifty measures. All objectives advance simultaneously because electrifying one sector can fail if a dependent system, such as the power grid, remains carbon intensive. Four accelerators—investment, innovation, policy-oriented movements, and coordinated leadership—supply the resources and institutional change required. Progress is tracked as a portfolio: falling short in one area requires faster gains elsewhere rather than abandoning the overall objective.
Origin
Extracted from Masters in Business. John Doerr developed the plan after years of climate investing, research with leaders and specialists, and applying Andy Grove's OKR system to the climate crisis.
Core principles
- 01Treat the emissions baseline as a measurable system
- 02Break one enormous goal into sector-specific objectives
- 03Make every key result numeric and time-bound
- 04Pursue interconnected objectives simultaneously
- 05Combine innovation, investment, policy, and public action
- 06Compensate for shortfalls by accelerating progress elsewhere
How to run it
- 1
Quantify the baseline
Measure the system's total annual emissions and identify the sectors producing them. A shared baseline establishes the scale of change required.
Pro tip Use a consistent unit across sectors so their relative impact can be compared.
Watch out Do not let uncertain data become an excuse for avoiding measurable targets.
- 2
Set the ultimate objective
Define the destination as reducing the emissions baseline to net zero. Give it a time horizon that reflects both urgency and operational reality.
Pro tip State the objective in language that every participating institution can repeat.
Watch out A distant aspiration without interim results will not guide present decisions.
- 3
Divide the system into objectives
Organize the challenge around transportation, electricity, food, nature, industry, and carbon removal. Preserve dependencies between the areas rather than treating them as isolated projects.
Pro tip Assign explicit ownership to every sector objective.
Watch out Electrifying transportation without decarbonizing electricity can leave substantial emissions intact.
- 4
Define measurable key results
Give each objective three to five numeric, time-bound results. Together, the results should account for the required reduction from the baseline.
Pro tip Express results in physical outcomes such as emissions avoided, market adoption, or protected area.
Watch out Broad commitments such as supporting clean energy are not measurable enough.
- 5
Act on every front
Run the sector campaigns concurrently because the remaining climate window is limited and the systems interact. Allocate resources according to impact without waiting for one campaign to finish.
Pro tip Use a portfolio view to identify bottlenecks and reinforcing actions.
Watch out Taking turns across sectors sacrifices time and ignores system dependencies.
- 6
Engage the accelerators
Mobilize investment, technological innovation, public movements, and political action. Coordinate entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, employees, shareholders, and community leaders.
Pro tip Convert broad public concern into a specific institutional demand or commitment.
Watch out Individual consumption changes alone cannot produce all required structural change.
- 7
Track and rebalance
Measure progress against the key results and increase effort where the portfolio is falling behind. If one target proves unattainable, seek additional reductions from other objectives while protecting the net-zero destination.
Pro tip Publish a shared scorecard that makes gaps and ownership visible.
Watch out Do not treat a missed component target as permission to abandon the overall plan.
In the wild
A cross-country team concerned about running behind polluting diesel buses organized a petition to its school district. The students converted an individual health concern into coordinated influence aimed at changing institutional purchasing.
→ The school district adopted electric buses, demonstrating how a small group can translate a movement into a specific action.
Walmart committed to make its supply chain carbon neutral while protecting millions of acres of land and ocean water. The commitments combine operational decarbonization with nature protection rather than limiting action to a single emissions source.
→ A large company used its supply-chain reach and land-and-ocean commitments to pursue regenerative impact at scale.
Common mistakes
Searching for one magic bullet
No single technology or sector can remove the entire emissions baseline. The plan requires simultaneous progress across mitigation, protection, and removal.
Confusing personal action with system change
Lifestyle changes matter, but leaders must also influence employers, investors, laws, and public institutions.
Running objectives sequentially
The sectors are interdependent and the available time is limited. Waiting to complete one objective before beginning another undermines the plan.
Is it for you?
Best for
Coalitions, governments, companies, and movement leaders coordinating complex decarbonization programs.
Not ideal for
Anyone seeking a single technology, isolated lifestyle change, or sequential project that can solve climate change alone.
From the transcript
“the research behind it has built a plan in electrifying transportation and the other five for which each of the objectives has three to five…”
“It's a total of fifty key results for the world numeric time bound, and we've got to get after them all at once. We can't…”
“There's really four accelerators that will get this job done. One of them is investing, another is innovation, the work of entrepreneurs.”
From the episode
John Doerr on Sustainable Investments (Podcast)
John Doerr