Sustainable living refers to an individual or society's lifestyle that can be sustained with limited exhaustion of natural resources. Its adherents most often hold true sustainability as a goal or guide, and make lifestyle tradeoffs, such as transport, housing, energy, and diet that favor sustainability.

Most often these tradeoffs involve making more environmentally-friendly lifestyle choices. Lester R. Brown concisely summarizes the situation as "sustaining progress depends on shifting from a fossil fuel-based, automobile-centered, economy to a renewable energy-based, diversified transport, reuse/recycle economy".

This term is definitionally very similar to, and often used interchangeably with the term ecological living.

Sustainable living is a sub-division of sustainability where the prerequisites of a modern, industrialized society are left unexercised by choice for a variety of reasons. The practices and motives overlap somewhat between the movements. Sustainable living in urban areas requires a sustainable urban infrastructure.

Self-sufficiency is the principle of consuming only those things produced by oneself or one's family. It is generally a stricter lifestyle than a sustainable lifestyle in that an effort is made to limit trade with others regardless of the sustainability of such trade.

Permaculture is a design philosophy that emphasises sustainability in land use and landscaping, as well as fields such as architecture and economics (for example, encouraging the spread of Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS)). In terms of agriculture, food production and building materials, permaculture emphasises use of well-adapted plant materials that require few inputs, especially trees, hemp, and other edible and useful perennials.

Some people are opposed to furthering mechanization and technology in society for any reason. Adherents of sustainable living, in contrast, are willing to accept appropriate technology.

An individual's carbon footprint represents the amount of carbon required to maintain that person's lifestyle, and what impact that lifestyle has on the earth. A higher footprint represents a lifestyle that is less sustainable, and a lower footprint represents a more sustainable lifestyle. Most carbon footprint websites have suggestions for decreasing a person's carbon footprint, and therefore increasing their sustainability.