Recent perspectives on urbanised human settlement are seeing a re-emergence of the people-place nexus as critical to long term sustainability (Parker, 2015). Such re-emergence has significant implications in the context of social, economic and environmental perspectives on places, with sustainability often the justification for urban consolidation and change (Gray, Gleeson and Burke, 2010; Bunker, Holloway and Randolph, 2005). Defining sustainability, particularly long term sustainability, remains challenging and cross sectoral communication barriers remain. Unpacking long term sustainability and what it may mean for suburbs is important for long term climate adaptation and integration. It also has implications for uptake of sustainability initiatives by communities which in turn has flow on effects for the people-place nexus in cities and suburbs. This presentation will discuss recent research on these issues.