The goal of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is to empower learners to participate in mastering the current challenges of global society. This study investigates what professional competences teachers need to have in order to implement high-quality ESD in school. To this end, the COACTIV model of teacher professional competence (Baumert und Kunter 2011) was specified for the field of ESD using qualitative data from 20 interviews with ESD researchers and teachers. The results of the study show that the COACTIV competence dimensions (professional knowledge, beliefs, motivation, self-regulation) can be applied to ESD. The data also show that some components of the model should be further differentiated and defined more specifically in terms of ESD: For example, the interdisciplinarity of the ESD-related contents is a central aspect of ESD, which is mirrored in the ESD-specific model component of pedagogical content knowledge regarding interdisciplinary teaching.