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Education for Sustainable Development has been a core issue of work in Gelsenkirchen since the council voted unanimously on Agenda 21 in 1997. In less than 10 years, an exemplary network for sustainability and ESD has grown. An indicator of this is the extraordinary wealth of different projects (over 60 at the time of writing) and citizens’ involvement (15 working groups currently) in the scope of Agenda 21 alone. By way of example, the Agenda 21 kindergarten and the student company MehrWert have been recognised as UN Decade Projects. The motto "Think Global, Act Local" is inspiring many people – thousands of students have been involved in the world sponsored runs for the environment alone. With this UN Decade project, they have shown their commitment since 2000 towards making Gelsenkirchen a solar-powered city and are helping erect the "one world" solar equipment here and elsewhere.

Citizens’ participation, along with the involvement of diverse organisations and associations, churches and the private sector has been a central cornerstone of the sustainability process in Gelsenkirchen since the outset. This has resulted in cross-cutting cooperation and networks in different topics:

• Over 50 private entities and different municipal institutions have got together since then to offer approximately 140 courses for the “creative workshop” scheme for 2008. The focus here is on promoting the future competences of children and young people in terms of ESD. This network was awarded the first German local sustainability prize in Berlin in 2007 and in the same year was recognised as the sixth Gelsenkirchen UN Decade Project.
• A further core component is the Environment department’s Environment certificate – an environmental education programme for children with in excess of 40 partners.
• Schools, children’s and youth clubs and day-care centres and other educational entities got together in Gelsenkirchen-Hassel in 2004 for the "Hassel education offensive" under Agenda 21 to make the neighbourhood more interesting and the educational options on offer multi-institutional so as to create training to harness children and young people’s talents.
• The Agenda 21 Nature and Landscape working group has developed into a nature and educational network in a short space of time. In conjunction with the Children and School and Education networks, the information exchange has been structured around nature and landscape conservation with sponsorship of green areas, excursions to nature areas have been started and support has been given to numerous actions on environmental education in schools.
• The Gelsenkirchen Dye Gardens have now become part of an international network. As a twinning project, "Seven European Gardens", and together with other international partners, they form part of the 2010 Ruhr area Capital of Culture.

Gelsenkirchen city council voted unanimously in June 2008: "Gelsenkirchen city council declares Education for Sustainable Development in terms of the UN Decade to be a guiding principle."