Scholars have established sustainability as the goal of environmental sciences. The objective of this research was to establish definitions regarding the concept of sustainability and its place within agroecology theory. For that, a systematic review was conducted in global scientific databases, complemented with specialized journals and books. It was found that there is no agreement on the system of reference, so sustainable agriculture, development, rural development, as well as sustainability of agroecosystems, and of food systems are proposed as goals of agroecology. Also, there is no consensus on the kind of sustainability agroecology embraces, but integral sustainability has a broader acceptance.