Purpose The aim of this article is to provide a deeper conceptual understanding of the interdependence between service innovation, sustainability and quality in the age of accelerations in the context of cities. The research question is, how can service innovation, sustainability and quality interact in cities to meet the challenges of technology, globalization and climate change? Design/methodology/approach The study adopts a qualitative research approach and cases study research method in the context of cities. In this article, meeting the challenges in the age of accelerations is analyzed and interpreted in an abductive process in an interaction between empirical findings of three progressive cities Freiburg, Malmo and Gothenburg and the conceptual and theoretical frame for getting a new meaning. Findings The article demonstrates the need for a deeper conceptual understanding of the interdependence of service innovation, sustainability and quality in the age of accelerations. Service innovation and quality improvement cannot be handled as a standalone managerial activity because these processes are part of values-based learning and developing a loop for transformation, value co-creation and sustainability practice. Research limitations/implications Future research in this area should focus on generalizing the present findings to securing sustainable service business embedded on social and environmental perspectives and governance issues in other empirical settings and conceptualization. Societal implications The article looks into the idea of an ecosystem to achieve a balance between nature and people: Dynamic and complex ecosystems can be illustrated in different contexts to ensure a strong commitment to societal and environmental perspectives to create value and develop a sustainability practice. Originality/value The article makes an original contribution by using insights from service research, quality movement research and from studying actual sustainability practices in the real-life contexts of cities by developing a conceptual paper.