With climate change and the opportunity to exploit oil and gas reserves, the Arctic has been the subject of numerous analyses in former years. At the same time, International Maritime Organization (IMO) and Arctic coastal states are creating a more constrained framework to protect the environment, to limit the impact of human activities upon the flora and fauna, and to better integrate local communities. From an analysis of 239 articles, we assessed how sustainability has been considered within the literature over the past 30 years. Our result highlighted that, if there are numerous sustainable approaches depending on the country, the subject is still under-represented. © 2023 World Scientific Publishing Europe Ltd. All rights reserved.