This article discusses three innovative projects with a focus on education for sustainable development which were kick-started by the previous government's Transformation Fund for informal adult learning. The projects each illustrate how powerful and transformational sustainability education can be when it uses people's lived experience as a basis for addressing the interconnected environmental, social and economic challenges affecting society, globally and locally. The projects cut across many different curriculum areas and used widely differing approaches to the delivery of sustainability teaching and learning. Climate Reach offered taster sessions on climate change for residents of deprived inner-city housing estates, users of drug recovery services and homeless hostels, and people living in rural areas at risk of exclusion, and trained outreach workers to run short, participatory sessions and engage people in public spaces. Sustainable Somerset, led by Somerset County Council Learning and Skills, put on events and training courses to bring together members of sustainability groups from across the county and encourage them to work together to make a difference in their communities. And Knowsley Adult Learning Partnership's Growing Places project recruited volunteers to transform four derelict spaces, turning them into allotments and gardens, which were made accessible to the whole community. All three projects encouraged participants to take practical action, whether that meant making informed changes to their lives, becoming active in the local community or finding like-minded groups or individuals in order to make a difference.