Despite its real difficulty to disseminate and profoundly change the dominant economic regulations, sustainable development has given rise to significant new practices both public and private. In this overview article, which also introduces this thematic issue of the journal, we focus on two major modes of the embedding of these practices: territories and socio-institutional dynamics. Along the territorial axis, several dimensions appear particularly important: the territory as a revealing, or even amplifying vector of sustainability challenges; territorialisation processes based on sustainable development; complex impacts of competitive-cooperative relationships on sustainable development dissemination. Along the socio-institutional dynamics axis, among the varied figures that can be observed, the choice has been made in this article to insist on two key issues. The first one is related to the ongoing rapid technological change, within which environment-based components become more and more significant, and to the way the development of green technologies and activities may impact economic growth and competitiveness models. The second issue deals with the way the action of social and solidarity economy organizations evolves in line with the crucial dimensions of sustainable development. In fine, both the territorial and socio-institutional “lenses” help to better identifying the great variety of practices that claim to be inspired by or in line with sustainable development.