Civil society and its organisations (CSO) play a vital role in the implementation of and social change towards sustainable development (SD). Civil society actors exhibit special features:They are to a large degree driven by visions and ideals, they place a focus on common action thus balancing individual and collective goals.CSO participate in and initiate as well as organise discourses about SD in society.Through their activities, social capital is built, maintained and increase.CSO provide and share a non-economical,non-efficiency driven world view to the implementation process of SD.This guidebook gives an insight to the impact of CSO on governance processes towards SD from three different viewpoints: