Following the 2015 adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by the United Nations, 'sustainability' has become an increasingly powerful term for justifying development interventions. Based on two years of a pre-existing collaborative relationship with a community in semi-rural Nepal, ethnographic observations, focus group discussions, and in-person and virtual interviews during the Covid-19 pandemic, I provide an understanding of what 'sustainability' means and entails to grassroots development actors in this context, reclaiming and reshaping the meaning of 'sustainability' and providing shared lessons with other communities in the Global South.I argue that discourses about sustainability have become localized and rooted in people's historical, cultural, and intersectional experiences and transnational ideas and discourses. People creatively leverage these experiences and discourses in understanding and critiquing 'development', expressing collective discontent, and mobilizing for change. For example, people whom I work with understand 'sustainability' as the sociocultural reproduction of agricultural work in the context of mass out-migration. I also argue that sustainability efforts entail translocal learning and resources. Translocality comprises both rootedness in localities, and mobilities/social connections across multiple geographical scales. On the one hand, there are emerging challenges following regional and global processes, which require translocal resources to address. On the other hand, there are emerging forms of transnational connections, such as diasporic connections, circular or returning migration, transnational NGO networks, and international friendships, which provide additional avenues for mobilizing resources for community development efforts. In addition, I argue that 'sustainability' entails not 'status quo', but 'transformations' underpinned by intergenerational learning and knowledge about the local environment. Youth out-migration and decontextualized school education often disrupt intergenerational knowledge transfer. 'Sustainability' efforts can be supported by various sharing and learning opportunities among multi-generational, diverse actors within communities, to help promote inspiration, meaning-making, and knowledge adaption for change-making. Lastly, I argue that sustainability efforts entail mobilizing resources toward local development. 'Sustainability' efforts depend on the resources available, existing constraints and opportunities, and the effectiveness of their mobilization. Community actors strategically develop local resources, including human, material, financial and natural resources to achieve self-sufficiency, without rejecting external resources, including funding, technologies, ideas, and market participation.