The debate is heated on how we can come to terms with the congestion and over-consumption in the world. Business life’s response includes co-creation as a main argument. Sustainability requires that parties collaborative join forces, it is suggested. But what does the literature say on the matter? The paper systematically reviews past research that connects sustainability to external parties and develops a typology of sustainability and external parties. The paper points out how external parties are connected with different roles related to three approaches to sustainability: (1) the reactive, legitimising approach whereby others place pressure on the firm; (2) the proactive, market-positioning approach whereby the firm tries to attract others through marketing itself as sustainable; and (3) the proactive, idealistic approach, whereby the firm is driven by sustainability ambitions. It is only this last approach that contains the collaboration with external parties. The paper importantly contributes to past research by connecting sustainability to external parties and pointing out how the focus on co-creation is overemphasised as ideal relative to the literature. Put differently, the paper questions why research is extensively focused on legal adaptation rather than interactional approaches in sustainability research.