The recent increased attention to the topic of sustainability in architecture is laudable in principle; not so, however, the depth and quality of the related discourse. Broadly speaking, in discussions of the so-called sustainable architecture, image evocation via medial visibility and resonance appears at times to overshadow wanting evidence for the purported sustainability. Advocacy, promotion, and image cultivation cannot substitute serious, rational, and accountable approaches to definition, realization, and evaluation of sustainable built environments. Thus, this paper approaches the sustainability discourse in architecture from a broader and more critical standpoint. Thereby, the focus is on relevant boundary conditions and pertinent criteria for sustainable built environments. Moreover, the expectations from - and potential of - sustainable architecture are put in the context the environmental implications of other areas of social development and human activity.