New research and practice in sustainability proposes an integrated concept whereby “social issues” are indistinguishable and inseparable from economic or environmental issues and vice versa. These approaches are based in experiences with real places and real people, pertaining to, as Krueger & Agyeman (2005) contend, “actual existing sustainabilities.” The articles in this special issue extend the effort to envision a deeply integrated approach to sustainability by rooting their analyses in local places and actual people, highlighting the importance of grounded perspectives, collaborative processes, and engaged governance that address multiple issues at once and challenge the customary multi-pillar model. While these are not new concerns in sustainability circles (see Boström, 2012; Murphy, 2012), the authors of the work presented here argue concretely for the interconnections among these elements and suggest specific ways that they can be better included in sustainability efforts.