This article introduces the guiding principles of sustainable education. It starts from the observation that many education systems around the world have launched ambitious programs aiming to raise academic standards and to reconcile concerns for excellence with concerns for equity. However, many of these programs have failed to reach their ambitious goals. Meanwhile, the rapid changes taking place in the globalising world call for major educational reform in which the needs of all students are taken into account, the natural resources of the educational environment are not depleted, and the young generation is optimally prepared to meet the demands of the future world. Concerted action, comprising policy measures with regard to curriculum design, teaching methodology, teacher training, and equity-enhancing programmes will be needed to raise the extent to which the educational domain produces sustainable output.