Due to the rapid changes occurring in the social and ecological environment, students' sustainable consciousness has become an important issue. This study explored the impact of higher vocational college teachers' course management and students' metacognition on sustainable consciousness by taking higher vocational college students in Hainan, China, as the research participants. Four hundred and eighty-four higher vocational college students were surveyed, and the research model was tested using structural equation modelling. The results showed that teachers' course management can enhance students' metacognition, and this improvement in metacognition can also contribute to the development of sustainable consciousness; thus, teachers' course management can help students improve their sustainable consciousness by improving their metacognition. Therefore, teachers' course management is essential to developing students' metacognition and sustainable consciousness. The research results also found that students' metacognition significantly impacts sustainability awareness, so attention must be paid to cultivating students' metacognition.