Two dominating angles in the debate regarding sustainability and sustainable development has been if there are limits to growth or not, often captured with the opposites Malthusians versus Cornucopians, and if different forms of economic capitals are possible to substitute with each other or not, strong versus weak sustainability. Within the Cornucopian and weak sustainability view, continued economic growth and technological optimism are common positions. Within the Malthusian and strong sustainability view, leveling off the growth curves to a relatively stable steady state is the most common position. The system scientist and ecologist Howard T. Odum viewed sustainability as the economists’ equivalent to the ecological climax concept, a supposed long-term steady state for the system. However, within the science of ecology the steady state, “final”, climax has since long been abandoned. The systems ecologist C.S. Holling and coworkers has, successfully, proposed a model of continuous renewal in a closed loop four-stage model, often referred to as the “lazy eight” (since graphically it looks like anumber “8” laying down). H.T. Odum came to a very similar conclusion, based on general systems models. From these models he predicted that a steady state sustainability outcome is less likely than a pulsing pattern. This mainly because the short-time competition of available resources will create such apattern, rather than a long-term steady state pattern. Pulsing has, so far, not been discussed to a large extent in the sustainability literature. This paper will examine sustainability and sustainable development in relation to the pulsing view, 20 years after H.T. Odum’s propositions on the topic. Pulsing has four main stages according to Odum: 1) Growth, 2) Climax or transition, 3) Descent, 4) Regeneration. From a sustainability point of view each of these phases probably should have different characteristics and need different management strategies. The pulsing pattern, according to general systems theory, also appears on several time scales and hierarchical levels, at the same time. This will also have impact on available management choices for decision makers. SDG targets: The paper do not address specific SDG targets, rather it address' the fundamental mechanism underlying them.