The ‘Great Transformation’ towards sustainable economies and lifestyles (WGBU, Welt im Wandel: Gesellschaftsvertrag für eine Große Transformation. Berlin: WBGU, 2011) is one of the central challenges of the twenty-first century. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is a holistic concept that addresses the global challenges of our interconnected world. ESD empowers people to make responsible decisions in terms of ecological integrity, economic viability, and equitable society (BNE-Portal, Das UNESCO programm in Deutschland, 2023). Gestaltungskompetenz (shaping competence) [In the following, we refer to de Haan (Kompetenzen der Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung. Springer, Wiesbaden, 2008; Int Rev Educ 56(2):315–328, 2010) who coined the term Gestaltungskompetenz, usually translated as shaping competence. The term is associated with a specific understanding. Therefore, we will use the German expression.], the acquisition of competencies to design a desirable future, plays a key role in enabling the realization of sustainable development processes and facilitating a change of perspective from reaction to action. This focus on the future requires prospective strategies (de Haan G, Kompetenzen der Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung. Springer, Wiesbaden, 2008) and is an essential link to the innovation methodology of Design Thinking, which can be described as inventive thinking in multidisciplinary teams to develop solutions to complex challenges. Design Thinking is already receiving attention in various areas of education (Lor, Design thinking in education: a critical review of literature, 2017). Although many opportunities exist to support ESD, Design Thinking is hardly widespread in the German higher education context (BNE-Portal, Das UNESCO programm in Deutschland, 2023). This article presents key aspects of Design Thinking and provides examples of how it can be applied to support the acquisition of Gestaltungskompetenz in the context of ESD in Higher Education. The practical implementation is then illustrated using an example from our courses in master’s degree programs at the Institute for Educational Leadership and Management at Ludwigsburg University of Education (LUE) in Germany.