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This article draws attention to certain aspects of the formula 'sustainable development', from the specific perspective of dialogism and discursive conflict. The notion of 'formula' is recalled, before an assessment of how a formulaic approach to discourse around sustainable development can be developed. Concession is shown to be an inter-discursive constituent of this formula, positing a contradiction that 'sustainable development' seems to resolve. The article then looks at how resistance to the consensus thus created and attempts to re-politicize the debate (e.g. in the counter-discourse of the 'degrowth' movement, or in the qualification of 'sustainable development' as an oxymoron) work together. The article concludes by identifying some of the ways these critiques are anticipated, and by describing how a discourse on 'sustainable development' claims to recreate a coherent set of values.