This presentation describes how the term sustainability is, and has been, applied by NACE International, by the Society for Protective Coatings (also called SSPC), by now what is known as the Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP), and by other organizations historically to achieve sustainable operation, maintenance, and service life extension of high-value physical assets and infrastructure. Further, it describes how cathodic protection work, when properly performed, provides a sustainability function for buried or submerged metal assets. These asset types include a wide range of physical structures, processes, and vessels, in industries as diverse as maritime transport, oil and natural gas production, water production and wastewater management, mining, petroleum refining and distribution, electrical generation and distribution, food production, and even medical devices.