Education and lifelong learning are increasingly being mobilised to address the global environmental crisis and accompanying sustainability challenges. This article discusses the many roles of education about and for sustainable development, drawing on evidence and arguments put forward in the 2016 Global Education Monitoring Report, Education for People and Planet. It highlights specific viewpoints, values and ways of thinking that best characterize effective learning for sustainability. It also emphasises the importance of a ‘whole school’ or ‘whole institutional’ approach to education for sustainability.