Journal of Education for Sustainable Development 5:2 (2011): 215–223

This article describes how education for sustainable development (ESD) has been integrated into education in China over the past decade through the efforts of the secretariat of a national steering committee working with UNESCO in conjunction with the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. ESD is now part of a new national education plan in China. The author found six principal methods that successfully promoted ESD in China: (a) Using a theoretical framework as the driving force; (b) Public educational policies made on the basis of education research; (c) Regional educational reform that meets the needs of local sustainable develop-ment; (d) Curriculum teaching methods constituted with features of ESD; (e) ESD characteristics integrated in the physical plant of the campus; and (f) Chinese–foreign exchange and cooperation in ESD at various levels