Sustainable literacy in language learning and teaching is a relatively new area of research. The majority of volumes and articles have been published since 2010. This bibliographical review traces the main factors influencing the development of sustainable literacy in foreign language (FL) learning and teaching: ecolinguistics, the ecology movement, and environmental humanities. The author delves into the origins of education for sustainable development (ESD) in FL teaching and highlights the impact that American FL academics have had in enhancing ESD through curricular and module design. This teaching and learning enhancement is connected with the publication of the Modern Languages Association report in 2007, which called for the renovation of FL education in Higher Education due to a decrease in the number of students interested in learning languages. The article continues with a description of the main common features among the main publications. The bibliographical review ends outlining the two main edited volumes in this field.