Educational Leadership for a More Sustainable World argues that current crises in educational policies and practice, including the recruitment and retention of educational leaders, ultimately derive from the interactions between four key challenges which also underpin current global and societal issues of sustainability:
A culture of consumption
Global energy demands
Climate change
Emerging population patterns

Mike Bottery argues that problems in dealing with these four global challenges, as well as many crises in education, are in large part due to a failure to appreciate their complex interactions and effects, and of the need for sufficiently complex responses. The result is that many policies in many areas hinder rather than facilitate appropriate solutions.

However, by showing that the dynamics of crises in educational sustainability have many similarities to those of global systems, this book argues that the adoption of a number of core practices and values can help educational leaders develop greater sustainability, not only in their own area of activity but can also help them make a valuable contribution to greater sustainability at the global level as well.