Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to point out the necessity of implementing more appropriate approaches instead of the traditional single disciplinary approaches, in order to be able to cope with the ill-defined, highly complex problem of sustainable development in systems such as organizations or regions. Design/methodology/approach – Based on empirical data concerning expert and stakeholder preferences, it is argued that research and teaching on innovation for sustainability need to be both inter- and transdisciplinary. Findings – Here, the approach of transdisciplinary case studies, developed at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, allows appropriate integration of research and teaching activities and thus leads to mutual learning between the case study actors. Practical implications – In the second part of the paper, these conceptual considerations are illustrated with the so-called Erzherzog Johann case study, an integrative research and teaching project at the University of Graz. Originality/value – In the paper the very complex task to integrate research and teaching on sustainability-related innovation is described and illustrated with the first transdisciplinary case-study conducted in Austria according to the ETH approach.