AbstractGlobal environmental degradation, and the diverse and intense interactions between irrigation and the environment, are prompting the sector to play a more active role towards sustainability. This paper builds on ICID's 2030 vision on a more sustainable irrigation sector. It recaps the various environmental impacts of irrigation systems and calls for a threefold paradigm shift: the objectives of irrigation, its practices, and the ways to assess its impacts must evolve. The paper critically analyses the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs') framework, which provides a prompting set of orientations, yet with little consideration of the systemic nature of irrigation. The paper promotes more operational frameworks: nexus thinking and the ecosystem services' framework, since both allow for systemic approaches, and for developing trade‐offs. The paper also discusses the merits of life cycle analysis (LCA) for environmental impact assessment. The benefits gained through these alternative approaches are illustrated in two cases of environmental impacts: return flow and salinization. Finally, the paper suggests combining these approaches with three principles for fostering a true paradigm shift in agricultural water use: developing and using suitable metrics, combining models to reconnect economic concerns with environmental ones, and considering larger territories and ecosystems to cater for interactions with the environment. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.