This paper focuses on the federal state level of ESD transfer. Both, the UN implementation strategy as well as the observed process of networking and policy making on ESD at state level suggest that civil society actors do play a central role. In our qualitative study, we analyse in more depth how state and civil society actors coordinate their action and if – how they act and argue in working groups/ committees aiming at consensus-oriented negotiations among these different actors. Based on 24 interviews carried out with ministerial staff and NGOs representatives on state level in five different federal states in Germany, we aim: methodologically, to develop research instruments and analysis strategies to map processes of interaction between state and civil society actors on a time scale and theoretically, we ask how change over time takes place and why actors enter into negotiation process. We want to address the paradox described above and show different ways/paths federal states have chosen to deal with this inherent conflict of different mechanism of modes of governance. Furthermore, we want to continue the discussion raised by Feinstein et al. (2013) on the usefulness of national-level analysis of ESD implementation processes.