In this multidisciplinary study we have explored the function of school leading in the implementation process of education for sustainable development (ESD), employing a whole school approach (WSA). School leading and school improvement are both established research fields within leading and development; therefore, it was wise to use the knowledge that is available within these two fields on how to lead and implement improvements in school organizations. A multidisciplinary approach contributes through knowledge regarding the implementation of socially and educationally sustainable qualities. A WSA involves all parts of the school organization contributes to a comprehensive perspective by emphasizing connections between school leading, local school organizations, and ESD implementation. Finally, a practice-informed approach provides valuable insights by investigating principals’ leading and its preconditions in terms of the practice architectures enabling or constraining the realization of a WSA to ESD. Practice architectures exist in a dialectical relationship with the practices that they prefigure, in that they both constitute and are constituted by practice. Undertaking this work required an examination of what happened when ESD was implemented in local school over a period of time. In order to do this, we returned to the five schools in a municipality that had initiated an ESD project in 2016, interviewing principals in 2018 and then again in 2020. The interviews explored whether (or not) the local preconditions had developed into practice architectures that facilitated a WSA to ESD. Based on the empirical results from this study and school improvement theory, guidelines were developed that can be used to drive a WSA to ESD process forward through three different school improvement phases: initiation, implementation, and institutionalization.