The four founding partners of the initiative combine strengths to mobilize universities and higher education institutions to support sustainable development: 

COPERNICUS-CAMPUS is responsible for the University Charter for Sustainable Development (external link), signed to date by 306 university heads in 37 European countries; 

ULSF serves as the Secretariat for over 280 signatories of the Talloires Declaration (external link) in over 40 countries, and promotes education for sustainability based on the Earth Charter;

IAU provides a global Forum for cooperation and a clearing house for information among more than 650 member universities and institutions of higher education which have formally adopted the Kyoto Declaration on Sustainable Development;

UNESCO is the task manager for the implementation of Chapter 36 [Education, Public Awareness and Training, (www.unep.org/Documents) (external link)] of Agenda 21 and for the international work programme on education of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development  (CSD), as well as the convener, in 1998, of the World Conference on Higher Education, both of which have called for the renewal of higher education to address the complex societal challenges of the 21st century. UNESCO is the Lead agency to promote the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.

Together, GHESP partners has rallied around the Lüneburg Declaration on Higher Education for Sustainable Development which was a milestone of the organisations’ preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) and sets out their collective commitment to action.
The rationale for the partnership is the consensus that higher education must play a central role within the overall process of achieving sustainable development.  The partners are convinced that the leaders of higher education institutions and their academic colleagues in all disciplines must make sustainable development a central academic and organisational focus in order  to create a just, equitable and ecologically sound future. This requires the generation and dissemination of knowledge through interdisciplinary research and teaching, policy-making, capacity-building, and technology transfer.  It is critical that higher education institutions understand and accept their responsibility within the broader context of social and economic development, and the building of democratic, equitable and ecologically-minded societies.

The objectives of the partnership are to:
1. Promote better understanding, and more effective implementation of strategies for the incorporation of sustainable development in universities and other higher education institutions, beginning with the over 1000 signatories to the charters and declarations sponsored by the partner organisations. Emphasis is put on the need for interdisciplinary approaches to teaching and research;
2. Undertake a global review and assessment of progress in making sustainability central to curriculum, research, outreach and operations in institutions of higher education.  In so doing, assist UNESCO in its role within the UN system with respect to education for sustainable development;
3. Identify, share and disseminate widely, via internet, in print, through seminars and other venues, effective strategies, models and good practices for promoting higher education for sustainable development (HESD); 
4. Make recommendations on HESD based on the partnership's research and review and in consultation with key stakeholders from North and South, including business, governments, other UN bodies such as the United Nations University (UNU), as well as other relevant non-governmental organisations;
5. Demonstrate that it is possible to form a partnership of non-governmental organisations working closely with the UN system to develop and implement a joint action plan addressed to achieve common goals; and analyse this experience as an international demonstration project.