Sustainable development in Scotland has a number of distinct strands. The idea of sustainable development was used by the Brundtland Commission which defined it as development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." At the 2005 World Summit it was noted that this requires the reconciliation of environmental, social and economic demands - the "three pillars" of sustainability. These general aims are being addressed in a diversity of ways by the public, private, voluntary and community sectors in Scotland.

Scotland's first dedicated programme for sustainable communities was delivered by Forward Scotland between 1997 and 1999 as part of a UK wide initiative led by Encams. Partnerships with a number of local authorities were developed and dedicated officers recruited to work with communities. This programme piloted the Community Eco-cal a forerunner of ecological footprinting. This programme was evaluated by Professor Michael Carley, Heriot-Watt University and the lessons learned informed a successor programme, 2000–2002, where community groups themselves were the focus. This produced the very first handbook for sustainable communities and a series of highly successful community projects. During this time the first community grants programme for sustainable communities was launched funded by the New Opportunities Fund (now the Big Lottery Fund). This programme funded some pioneering projects in areas such as community renewables, local food, community waste management and the first ecological footprinting projects in Scotland.

In April 2007 plans were announced for Biggar to become the first 'carbon-neutral' town in Scotland. In the same month Findhorn Ecovillage confirmed that its ecological footprint is the lowest ever recorded in the industrialised world. In January 2008 HICEC published a report to "review the opportunities and actions needed to support an island community to become carbon-neutral". Following this, in June 2008 it was announced that Stirling was aiming to become Britain's first carbon-neutral city, hosting the Going Carbon Neutral Stirling project.

Community Energy Scotland is a charity that provides free advice, grant funding and finance for renewable energy projects developed by community groups in Scotland. The main aim of the company is to enable all communities to generate and use renewable energy for their long term and collective benefit. In March 2010 the local development trust on the island of Tiree commissioned a 950 kW community-owned wind turbine project, the fourth such large-scale project in Scotland.

Transition Town projects aim to raise awareness of sustainable living and build local ecological resilience. Examples in Scotland include Forres, Portobello, West Kilbride and Hawick.

In August 2010 the historian James Hunter stated that the transfer of ownership into community control had brought about "a spectacular reversal of Gigha's slide towards complete population collapse" and suggested that the UK Government should learn lessons from this and other community buy-outs in places such as Assynt, Eigg, and Knoydart to inform their Big Society plans. These successes notwithstanding, civil servants have been criticised for impeding community buy-outs of land via the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. For example, the proposed community purchase of the former RAF Machrihanish base was thwarted due to technical problems with the application despite 97.4% local support in a referendum.

The first serious policy was written in 1998 in anticipation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, by the Secretary of State's Advisory Group for Sustainable Development. This was followed by strategy that focussed on Waste, Energy and Travel in 2002 and Choosing our Future in 2005, which was written in association with the UK shared framework for sustainable development. In 2007 the Scottish National Party took office in a minority government pursuing 5 strategic objectives that encompass sustainable development but do not specifically reference it. Instead the government has adopted sustainable economic growth as its principal target.

In June 2007 John Swinney, the new Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth in the Scottish Government, announced plans for a Climate Change Bill that would include an intention to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050.