UK policy makers and local authorities increasingly make a recourse to supply chain terminology when promoting sustainable development. Through a case study of the offshore wind industry in the UK, this paper shows that this recourse is based on artificial definitions that muddle the local-global dynamics of clusters with the economies of scale of global supply chains: these are two related but distinct concepts. We propose a different, meta-organisational, supply chain level of analysis which is more relevant and informative when considering and supporting investment in sustainable technologies.