A cognitive and cultural analysis of metaphors informing sustainability communication and engagement among business students

Sustainability is often conceptualized through metaphors – powerful cognitive tools that shape how individuals perceive and communicate complex issues. Metaphors link abstract concepts to familiar experiences, making them more accessible. This study investigates how young adults from the Global South and Middle East conceptualize sustainability through metaphor, drawing on informal conversations with graduate business students enrolled in a German business faculty. Through open-ended discussions, we captured the language framing sustainability and uncovered deeper cognitive patterns underlying these expressions. To analyse these metaphors, we employed an AI-assisted Type Hierarchy methodology, categorizing them based on their cognitive structures. Our findings indicate that sustainability is frequently depicted as a relational process (“a love story”), a systemic challenge (“a puzzle” or “a three-legged stool”), a form of long-term investment (“money in the bank”), and a vital yet fragile necessity (“a desert oasis” or “a jacket in a poor family”). Additional metaphors such as “a tree,” “a garden,” and “a canal” highlight cultural adaptation, care, and enabling infrastructure. These metaphors provide cognitive and cultural insights, indicating that sustainability is not merely a technical or scientific issue but a dynamic process shaped by local economic realities, climate vulnerabilities, social priorities and cultural contexts. By systematically identifying and analysing these metaphors, we offer insights for ecolinguistics, ecopsychology, and sustainability communication, showing that metaphors are not merely rhetorical devices but central cognitive tools for understanding and engaging with environmental challenges. This knowledge can help policymakers, educators, and communicators craft messages that better relate to real-world experiences and concerns, stimulating effective engagement.