This article explores the development of the UK Government's Sustainable Schools Initiative and examines the contribution that science teaching can make to this. Drawing on recent research in schools and on development work in initial teacher education, the article argues that, in the absence of policy that enables schools to bring subject areas together, schools will have to take responsibility for this themselves. Schools should develop new ways of thinking about the focus and nature of science education, given the scope that this has for helping young people understand their world and what they can contribute to making it more sustainable