diff --git a/.github/actions/buildcdeps/action.yaml b/.github/actions/buildcdeps/action.yaml
index 9d775dd12..c1f89795b 100644
--- a/.github/actions/buildcdeps/action.yaml
+++ b/.github/actions/buildcdeps/action.yaml
@@ -16,6 +16,11 @@ inputs:
     default: $HOME/ESMF/lib/libg/Linux.gfortran.64.openmpi.default/esmf.mk 
     required: False
     type: string
+  esmf_root:
+    description: 'Path to the installed ESMF library'
+    default: $HOME/ESMF
+    required: False
+    type: string
   src_root:
     description: 'Path to cdeps source'
     default: $GITHUB_WORKSPACE
@@ -40,7 +45,13 @@ runs:
         mkdir build-cdeps
         pushd build-cdeps
         export ESMFMKFILE=${{ inputs.esmfmkfile }}
+        export ESMF_ROOT=${{ inputs.esmf_root }}
         export PIO=${{ inputs.pio_path }}
+        echo "ESMFMKFILE=${ESMFMKFILE}"
+        echo "ESMF_ROOT=${ESMF_ROOT}"
+        ls -l ${ESMFMKFILE}
+        ls -l ${ESMF_ROOT}
+        ls -lR ${ESMF_ROOT}/lib
         cmake ${{ inputs.cmake_flags }} ${{ inputs.src_root }}
         make VERBOSE=1
         popd
diff --git a/.github/workflows/extbuild.yml b/.github/workflows/extbuild.yml
index 185f6d85d..66b1ba002 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/extbuild.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/extbuild.yml
@@ -2,11 +2,12 @@
 name: extbuild
 # Controls when the action will run. Triggers the workflow on push or pull request
 # events but only for the main branch
-on:
-  push:
-    branches: [ main ]
-  pull_request:
-    branches: [ main ]
+on: push
+# on:
+#   push:
+#     branches: [ main ]
+#   pull_request:
+#     branches: [ main ]
 
 # A workflow run is made up of one or more jobs that can run sequentially or in parallel
 jobs:
@@ -19,7 +20,7 @@ jobs:
       CPPFLAGS: "-I/usr/include -I/usr/local/include "
       LDFLAGS: "-L/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu "
       # Versions of all dependencies can be updated here - these match tag names in the github repo
-      ESMF_VERSION: v8.6.1
+      ESMF_VERSION: v8.8.0
       ParallelIO_VERSION: pio2_6_2
     steps:
       - id: checkout-CDEPS
@@ -69,6 +70,7 @@ jobs:
         uses: ./.github/actions/buildcdeps
         with:
           esmfmkfile: $ESMFMKFILE
+          esmf_root: ${GITHUB_WORKSPACE}/ESMF
           pio_path: ${GITHUB_WORKSPACE}/pio
           src_root: ${GITHUB_WORKSPACE}
           cmake_flags: " -Wno-dev -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=DEBUG -DWERROR=ON  -DCMAKE_Fortran_FLAGS=\"-DCPRGNU -g -Wall \
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index a4e0aa82e..b055b0fc7 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -36,9 +36,11 @@ endif()
 message("CMAKE_MODULE_PATH is ${CMAKE_MODULE_PATH}, CMAKE_Fortran_COMPILER is ${CMAKE_Fortran_COMPILER}")
 enable_language(Fortran)
 
-if (TARGET esmf)
-  message("Target esmf is already found. Skip find_package ...")
+if (TARGET ESMF::ESMF)
+  message("Target ESMF::ESMF is already found. Skip find_package ...")
 else()
+  list(APPEND CMAKE_MODULE_PATH $ENV{ESMF_ROOT}/cmake)
+  message("CMAKE_MODULE_PATH is ${CMAKE_MODULE_PATH}, before find_package ESMF")
   find_package(ESMF REQUIRED)
 endif()
 
diff --git a/cmake/FindESMF.cmake b/cmake/FindESMF.cmake
deleted file mode 100644
index 175a39488..000000000
--- a/cmake/FindESMF.cmake
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,47 +0,0 @@
-
-if (DEFINED ENV{ESMFMKFILE})
-  message("ESMFMKFILE:   $ENV{ESMFMKFILE}")
-else()
-  message(FATAL_ERROR "ESMFMKFILE env variable is not defined")
-endif()
-
-set(ESMFMKFILE $ENV{ESMFMKFILE})
-
-# convert esmf.mk makefile variables to cmake variables until ESMF
-# provides proper cmake package
-file(STRINGS ${ESMFMKFILE} esmf_mk_text)
-foreach(line ${esmf_mk_text})
-  string(REGEX REPLACE "^[ ]+" "" line ${line}) # strip leading spaces
-  if (line MATCHES "^ESMF_*")                   # process only line starting with ESMF_
-    string(REGEX MATCH "^ESMF_[^=]+" esmf_name ${line})
-    string(REPLACE "${esmf_name}=" "" emsf_value ${line})
-    set(${esmf_name} "${emsf_value}")
-  endif()
-endforeach()
-string(REPLACE "-I" "" ESMF_F90COMPILEPATHS ${ESMF_F90COMPILEPATHS})
-string(REPLACE " " ";" ESMF_F90COMPILEPATHS ${ESMF_F90COMPILEPATHS})
-
-# We use only these 4 variables in our build system. Make sure they are all set
-if(ESMF_VERSION_MAJOR AND
-   ESMF_F90COMPILEPATHS AND
-   ESMF_F90ESMFLINKRPATHS AND
-   ESMF_F90ESMFLINKLIBS)
-  message(" Found ESMF:")
-  message("ESMF_VERSION_MAJOR:     ${ESMF_VERSION_MAJOR}")
-  message("ESMF_F90COMPILEPATHS:   ${ESMF_F90COMPILEPATHS}")
-  message("ESMF_F90ESMFLINKRPATHS: ${ESMF_F90ESMFLINKRPATHS}")
-  message("ESMF_F90ESMFLINKLIBS:   ${ESMF_F90ESMFLINKLIBS}")
-else()
-  message("One of the ESMF_ variables is not defined")
-endif()
-
-include(FindPackageHandleStandardArgs)
-find_package_handle_standard_args(ESMF
-                                    FOUND_VAR
-                                      ESMF_FOUND
-                                    REQUIRED_VARS
-                                      ESMF_F90COMPILEPATHS
-                                      ESMF_F90ESMFLINKRPATHS
-                                      ESMF_F90ESMFLINKLIBS
-                                    VERSION_VAR
-                                      ESMF_VERSION_STRING)