While there is an increased need to streamline the deployment of sustainable energy projects and high public advocacy for their implementation, projects of this type are often met with public opposition once proposed in a local context. Even although several attempts have been advanced to explain this attitude‐behaviour dissension, these explanations remain partial in how they cover the local opposition issue. There is, in fact, a dearth of research investigating in an integrative way the underlying motivations and/or obstacles for local acceptance. Based on a case study of wind energy using triangulation among a variety of different sources of data from the stakeholders involved, this study aims to uncover how the acceptance of sustainable projects emerges in community contexts. Findings reveal the barriers and motivational factors behind the acceptance of sustainable projects that managers must integrate in their business strategies in the hope of successfully initiating and sustaining behaviour‐change programmes.