Addressing the grand challenge of sustainability requires collaboration between various societal actors. Given fast growing economies and geo-political ambitions, this applies in particular to emerging economies. Hence, we examine in this paper how different societal actors in India frame sustainability. Applying a multi-phase mixed methods research design, we find a clear separation of a framing of sustainability, as comprising environmental issues and being the responsibility of the private sector, from that of CSR, as comprising social issues and being the remit of government. Thus, our study uncovered a tension between domestic framings, which may better account for local conditions, and international framings, which societal actors cannot avoid given their ambitions to become international economic and political actors. Regarding theory development, frame separation emerges as a mechanism that is geared towards maintaining the tension between competing frames rather than resolving it, as is the aim of more commonly discussed frame-alignment mechanisms.