Social Practices for Climate Mitigation: A Big Data Analysis of Russia’s Environmental Online Communities

Abstract

Addressing climate change necessitates a shift in everyday social practices, which are significant contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. While social media platforms are crucial for the emergence and dissemination of such practices, their role in the Russian context remains underexplored. This study employs a big data analysis to identify and systematize climate-related social practices discussed within Russian environmental online communities on the VKontakte platform. Using BERTopic topic modeling on a corpus of nearly 190,000 posts from 103 communities, followed by expert evaluation, we identified 80 distinct social practices. These practices were systematized according to actors, objects, and types of activities, revealing a rich ecosystem of grassroots initiatives focusing on waste management, sustainable consumption, education, and digital mapping. The findings demonstrate that online communities compensate for the lack of institutionalized citizen participation in Russian climate policy by fostering shared meanings and practical knowledge. The study concludes that these bottom-up practices represent a significant resource for climate policy, offering ready-made algorithms for behavioral change. We propose that public authorities leverage these communities to enhance public support and effectively implement climate mitigation and adaptation measures.

1. Introduction

Contemporary environmental challenges, including climate change, are intrinsically linked not only to production models but also to patterns of consumption. Scholars note that anthropogenic environmental impact is largely driven by the everyday practices of households, which account for a significant share of global greenhouse gas emissions [1,2]. In scientific literature, these everyday routine actions are termed “social practices”. Drawing on Anthony Giddens’ structuration theory, we conceptualize social practices as recurrent patterns or routinized actions of human activity that constitute the fundamental building blocks of social order. These routinized action sequences emerge through the dynamic interplay of structural rules and allocative resources, while simultaneously being reconstituted across temporal and spatial dimensions through their continual performance [3]. Recognizing that routine practices of households are directly or indirectly linked to over half of global greenhouse gas emissions [4], international organizations, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), acknowledge the necessity of transforming social practices as a key element of climate policy [5]. In this context, it is crucial to recognize which measures proposed by governments for adaptation and mitigation will garner support from the majority of the population—who will face the need to alter habitual actions—and which changes in social practices are already being implemented as grassroots initiatives [6,7]. Thus, public support for the transformation of social practices and environmental activism is considered among the most critical factors in implementing climate adaptation and mitigation [8].

As research shows [9,10], public support for climate measures critically depends on the perception of their effectiveness, fairness, and personal relevance [11,12]. To understand which practices are gaining traction, it is essential to examine the spaces where they are articulated and promoted. In this context, social networks are becoming key platforms for the formation and dissemination of new social practices aimed at reducing anthropogenic impact in a socially supported manner [13,14]. Social media significantly influences the formation of civic activism attitudes [15]. Online communities perform the functions of recruitment, articulation and aggregation of interests, and resource mobilization [16,17]. Furthermore, virtual communities facilitate engagement in real-world activities, which can be both constructive and protest-oriented [18]. Due to the intense digitization of social life, social networks are increasingly regarded as objects for studying changes in social practices [19,20]. This intersection, however, creates a productive theoretical tension. Traditional studies of digital activism often focus on explicit mobilization, protest, and the formation of collective identities. In contrast, a social practice approach shifts the analytical focus towards the often mundane, routine, and how-to aspects of environmental living that are shared in these communities, such as repairing items or composting. This does not negate the value of digital activism studies but rather complements them by revealing the understudied everyday groundwork that sustains broader movements. While activism research might analyze a post organizing a protest, our approach is equipped to analyze a post teaching how to repair a bicycle, seeing both as crucial, interconnected layers of online environmental engagement. Thus, our application of social practice theory illuminates how digital platforms serve not only as arenas for explicit mobilization but also as critical infrastructures for the circulation of the materials, competences, and meanings that constitute sustainable living.

Despite the growing interest in the role of grassroots initiatives in climate policy [21,22,23], there is a lack of systematic analysis of the social practices promoted within Russian environmental online communities. Existing research focuses primarily on institutional measures or individual behavior [17,24], while collective forms of organizing everyday environmental activities remain understudied [22,25]. Social practice theory was selected as the most appropriate analytical framework for this study because it moves beyond individualistic behavioral models to provide a systemic understanding of how everyday routines—embedding materials, competences, and meanings—are collectively shaped and sustained. This lens is uniquely suited to analyzing the content of online communities, where these very elements are actively discussed, negotiated, and disseminated. Moreover, the study of environmental social practices predominantly relies on traditional sociological methods—surveys and interviews—which are poorly suited for big data analysis. Consequently, the need for automated analysis methods is increasing [26]. Current literature describes research related to identifying specific types of practices in particular environmental communities [27,28]. However, the method of identifying practices using pre-trained models, as employed by these authors, does not guarantee the detection of all practices mentioned in the texts of environmental communities, nor does it enable comprehensive monitoring of post texts to identify emerging practices. This study aims to address these gaps.

This article addresses the following research question: What social practices related to the climate agenda are discussed in Russian environmental online communities on VKontakte? Guided by social practice theory, which emphasizes the importance of materials, competences, and meanings, we posit two central hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1.

The most prevalent social practices discussed in Russian online communities will align with high-visibility, everyday household consumption domains, such as waste management and sustainable purchasing, where individual agency is perceived to be higher.

Hypothesis 2.

Online discourse will reveal not only the “what” of these practices (e.g., recycling) but also actively construct the “how” (competences) and “why” (meanings), thereby functioning as a platform for the formation and dissemination of all three core elements of social practices.

The aim of this study is to test these hypotheses and systematically identify and categorize these practices using a combination of topic modeling and expert evaluation to assess their potential for behavioral change and integration into climate policy.

This study contributes novel insights in several key dimensions. Methodologically, it moves beyond the limited scale of traditional surveys and the constrained focus of pre-trained models by implementing a scalable BERTopic and expert evaluation pipeline to systematically identify a wide spectrum of social practices from nearly 190,000 posts. Empirically, it provides the first large-scale, systematic mapping of the social practices discussed within Russian environmental online communities, thereby offering unique, context-specific findings from an understudied region. Theoretically, it strengthens the application of social practice theory to digital activism by explicitly analyzing how materials, competence, and meaning are articulated in online discourse. Finally, in terms of practical impact, it translates these empirical findings into concrete, evidence-based recommendations for climate policy, demonstrating how publicly-supported grassroots practices can be leveraged as ready-made tools for enhancing mitigation and adaptation efforts.

The theoretical contribution of this study lies in adapting social practice theory to the analysis of digital environmental activism, demonstrating how online communities serve as platforms for forming shared meanings and competences in sustainability. Its methodological contribution is the development of an integrated approach combining BERTopic topic modeling with expert evaluation, which enabled the systematic identification and classification of 80 social practices from an analysis of nearly 190,000 posts. The empirical significance stems from the first comprehensive mapping of grassroots initiatives within the Russian environmental movement, revealing a unique spectrum of practices aimed at climate change mitigation. Finally, its policy relevance is articulated through concrete recommendations for climate governance, suggesting that public authorities can leverage these publicly-supported practices as ready-to-implement tools for enhancing public engagement and the efficacy of adaptation and mitigation measures.

In this study, we used the VKontakte social network as a source of texts. VKontakte was chosen because it is the most popular and officially recognized social network in Russia, widely used by both individuals and governmental organizations [29]. The platform’s penetration across all regions, including small towns and rural areas, ensures the representativeness of environmental discourse and the diversity of socio-demographic groups. VKontakte provides access to large-scale, publicly available user-generated data reflecting grassroots ecological initiatives, educational projects, and discussions of environmental policy. Compared to other social platforms, VKontakte offers several advantages for studying Russian environmental communication: (1) open access to posts and metadata through an official API, which allows transparent and reproducible data collection; (2) dominance among Russian-speaking audiences, unlike Telegram and Instagram, which are more fragmented and have more limited data accessibility; and (3) a well-established community structure that enables the identification of stable thematic networks.

The article is structured as follows. Section 2 describes the linkage between social practices, climate policy, and digital activism. Section 3 outlines the research design, data selection criteria, analytical tools, and main findings. Section 4 evaluates the obtained results in light of international trends and national policy. Section 5 presents recommendations for policy and educational programs, along with a description of future research directions and limitations.

2. Theoretical Framework

Since the 1970s, the social sciences have undergone a “practice turn” [30], where explanations of social phenomena have increasingly been sought through the lens of recurring everyday actions—social practices. Social practices possess a structure that may differ in the descriptions of different authors. While A. Reckwitz [31] initially identified six components of practices, the most operational model has proven to be the three-element framework by Shove, Pantzar, and Watson [32], which includes:

• Materials: physical artifacts and infrastructure (e.g., for the practice of cycling—the availability of bicycles and bike lanes);
• Competence: skills and knowledge necessary to perform the practice (e.g., for cycling—the ability to ride a bike and awareness of routes);
• Meaning: symbolic and emotional aspects (e.g., for cycling—choosing a bicycle as an eco-friendly mode of transport).

This tripartite model allows for the elements of a practice to be viewed as points of intervention. For instance, expanding the practice of cycling necessitates redesigning infrastructure and building bike lanes. Studies describe numerous successful applications of this approach. In Scandinavia, transforming food practices is achieved through reforming school lunches (materials), culinary courses (competence), and promoting climate-friendly diets (meaning) [33]. This demonstrates that transforming food practices requires concurrent changes in infrastructure, skills, and cultural narratives (see [32,34]).

The adoption of social practice theory in the context of environmental problems is motivated by three key reasons. The first reason is the inefficacy of individual-behavioral approaches. Traditional models focusing on personal attitudes and conscious decisions (e.g., the theory of planned behavior) have failed to explain the persistence of unsustainable practices even amid growing environmental awareness [35]. For example, people continue to fly despite being aware of its carbon footprint because air travel is embedded in practices of business, tourism, and family visits [36].

The second reason is the systemic nature of environmental problems, which necessitates systemic solutions. Social practice theory offers such solutions by targeting the elements of practices. Approximately 72% of global emissions are linked to households through: energy-intensive infrastructures (heating, transport); food supply chains; cultural consumption norms [37]. For instance, the practice of ’fast fashion’ is sustained not by consumer choice but by a system of cheap production, marketing, and social norms [38].

The third reason is the critique of “victimizing” consumers, which shifts the focus from individual responsibility to producer policies (product design, planned obsolescence); urban infrastructure (car dependency in suburbs); and social norms (e.g., the practice of gift-giving) [39,40].

Social practice theory provides a systemic perspective on behavior change [41,42,43,44], accounting for material-technical conditions (infrastructure), encompassing collective aspects of behavior, and identifying ’bottlenecks’ for transformation. Today, the practice theory approach is effectively applied in areas such as energy consumption (changing heating and appliance use practices) [4,45]; mobility (transport habits) [46]; and nutrition (food preferences and supply chains) [33].

Furthermore, studying social practices for their integration into climate policy reveals other crucial decision-making factors, such as the role of social institutions and trust in authorities. Trust in authorities enhances the effectiveness of climate policy measures [11,25]. As European experience shows, a key success factor is the perception of procedural fairness, even among those who “lose out” [47,48]. Citizens’ assemblies and climate councils enhance the legitimacy of stringent measures [22,25]. Conversely, low trust in the state undermines the effectiveness of top-down initiatives [49]. Trust in authorities also strengthens the behavioral spillover effect—the link between individual and collective action [50,51]. Researchers note that personal experience (e.g., waste sorting) increases support for systemic measures (carbon tax). Simultaneously, a reverse effect is observed: policy decisions (taxes) influence everyday practices (reducing meat consumption).

Russia lacks similar formats for citizen participation in the development and implementation of climate policy; public engagement is limited. On one hand, this leads to a lack of support for proposed measures, drastically reducing their effectiveness [8]. On the other hand, it can spark protest movements, analogous to the protests against the “waste reform” in Russia [18,52], as a consequence of an institutional crisis. In this context, the role of social networks in environmental activism is poised to grow [13,14]. Digital communities act as platforms for forming practices [28], and online discourse influences engagement and trust in institutions [53].

Thus, the problem of the gap between institutional policy and grassroots initiatives is addressed through the active promotion of new behavioral practices on social networks. Traditional methods (surveys, interviews) are of limited use for studying social networks. This necessitates methods suitable for big data analysis. In recent years, neural network methods for topic modeling have been actively developed, particularly BERTopic [54], which combines the capabilities of transformers (e.g., BERT [55], RoBERTa [56]) with clustering (HDBSCAN) and topic refinement using c-TF-IDF. Such models are especially effective for analyzing short, fragmentary, and thematically unstable texts characteristic of digital communities and user-generated content [57,58]. Topic quality is assessed using both automatic metrics (perplexity, coherence, topic diversity) and expert evaluation to interpret the results [59].

In recent years, researchers have started to use automatic text analysis to study everyday actions and social practices discussed online. These studies show that it is possible to detect patterns of behavior in social media posts if we combine modern language models with expert knowledge [60,61]. New topic modeling methods, such as BERTopic, and clustering algorithms like HDBSCAN help to find meaningful themes in short and informal online texts [62]. Large language models are now also used to help name and group these topics more clearly [63]. Recent reviews also emphasize that natural language processing methods can be used for social and environmental good when applied responsibly [64,65].

In summary, contemporary research demonstrates the necessity of moving from individual-behavioral models to a systemic analysis of social practices. As our review has shown, social practice theory [31,32] provides a unique analytical toolkit for understanding and transforming the everyday actions responsible for a significant share of global emissions. In the last few years, researchers have also begun to use automated text analysis to identify social practices discussed online, combining language models with expert interpretation. These studies demonstrate that topic modeling and clustering methods such as BERTopic can effectively reveal meaningful patterns in large social media datasets. Building on this progress, our study advances automated approaches to practice identification by applying BERTopic and HDBSCAN to a large corpus of VKontakte posts, followed by expert mapping of topics to the elements of social practices.

Given the theoretical background described above, this study aims to identify the social practices discussed in Russian environmental online communities using topic modeling methods. The research contributes both to theory (by adapting the social practices model to the analysis of digital communities) and to practice (by providing tools for monitoring and supporting environmental initiatives). The findings will help bridge the gap between institutional policy and everyday practices characteristic of the Russian context.

3. Methods and Results

3.1. Data Collection

The study is based on an analysis of 103 VKontakte communities selected according to the following criteria: registration on Ecowiki.ru (https://ecowiki.ru/communities (accessed on 6 November 2025)) (a green search engine); having an active VKontakte page; and having over 5000 subscribers, which we considered a threshold indicating a meaningful level of social engagement and influence, especially for small and regional communities. Two of these communities position themselves as international, 23 as nationwide, 19 are based in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and the remaining 59 are regional communities. Textual data from posts were collected and processed using topic modeling (BERTopic) to automatically identify discursive patterns, followed by expert evaluation to interpret these themes within the theoretical framework of social practices.

Using the VK API library, we gathered all posts published in the selected communities between 2007 and 2025. Data collection was carried out from late February to early March 2025. In total, 230,383 posts were retrieved. After removing duplicates and posts without text, 191,315 entries remained. Because data collection occurred at the beginning of 2025, posts from that year were excluded, resulting in a final dataset of 189,166 posts. The distribution of the posts per year is given in Figure 1.

This time frame was chosen to capture the long-term evolution of environmental discourse in Russia, from the early development of online environmental communities to recent discussions related to climate policy and sustainability. The starting point (2007) corresponds to the active growth of VKontakte as the main social media platform in Russia, when environmental groups first began to appear. The end point (2024) ensures the inclusion of the most recent complete year of data, while avoiding partial information from 2025. This broad temporal window allows us to observe how public attention to environmental topics has changed over time and to identify periods of increased activity linked to major events, such as the introduction of the National Project “Ecology” (2019–2024), the expansion of waste management reform (started in 2019), and the publication of Russia’s Low-Carbon Development Strategy (started in 2021). These milestones likely influenced the content and visibility of environmental discussions in VKontakte communities. Therefore, the multi-year dataset provides a more reliable basis for analyzing long-term trends and shifts in social practices.

Pre-processing steps included several standard procedures aimed at cleaning and normalizing the text data. All posts were first converted to lowercase to ensure uniformity. Special symbols, punctuation marks, URLs, and emojis were removed. The texts were then lemmatized using the Pymorphy2 library [66], which provides high-quality morphological analysis for Russian. This step allowed us to reduce different word forms to their base (dictionary) form and thus improve topic coherence. Finally, common stop words that do not carry semantic meaning were removed using the standard list of Russian stop words from NLTK [67]. As a result, the dataset contained only meaningful lexical units suitable for topic modeling.

3.2. Topic Modeling

First, BERTopic [54] was utilized as the unsupervised method for topic modeling, integrating transformer-based embeddings with dimensionality reduction and clustering techniques. Initially, text documents are transformed into dense vector representations using pre-trained transformer models. To address the high dimensionality of these embeddings, we applied UMAP (Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection), which reduces dimensions while retaining semantic structure. The resulting lower-dimensional embeddings were then clustered to identify groups of semantically related documents. For each cluster, BERTopic generates a topic representation by selecting the most informative words based on a c-TF-IDF weighting scheme.

To determine the optimal number of topics, we tested several clustering configurations within the BERTopic framework with four embedding models (paraphrase-multilingual-MiniLM-L12-v2 [68], distiluse-base-multilingual-cased-v1 [68], RuBERT-base [69], and LaBSE [70]). K-means was evaluated with 75, 100, and 125 clusters, while HDBSCAN was tested with minimum cluster sizes of 100, 150, and 200. The number of topics produced by these settings ranged from 31 to 184.

Each configuration was compared using topic coherence and topic diversity metrics. The best performance was achieved using HDBSCAN with a minimum cluster size of 150, combined with the paraphrase-multilingual-MiniLM-L12-v2 embedding model [68] (coherence = 0.81, diversity = 0.73), which generated 110 topics. This configuration provides an optimal balance between interpretability and granularity. Therefore, it was selected for further expert evaluation. Figure 2 illustrates how the number of topics and coherence values varied across model configurations using the paraphrase-multilingual-MiniLM-L12-v2 embedding model, highlighting the selected model used in this study.

Thus, the resulting topic model comprises 110 topics. The complete list of topics, with IDs ranging from 0 to 109, is presented in

Table A1. Topics (0–30).

ID	Topic Label	Keywords
0	Current Focuses of Environmental Policy	plastic, plastics, bag, bottle, plastic, packaging, recycling, paper, labeling, single-use
1	Attitude Toward the Environmental Agenda	USA, Russia, China, politics, international, country, security, military, attitude, report
2	Eco-Lifestyle and Positive Connections	thank you, our friend, person, everything, this, entire, very, done, more
3	Job Ads and Vacancies Related to the ESG Agenda	district, Mon, further, access, st., Fri, Mon–Fri, Fri access, Mon–Fri access, closed employee
4	Environmental Volunteer Campaigns	shore, volunteer, camp, lake, project, trash, cleanup, Vuoksa, clean, trail
5	Eco-Education and Environmental Awareness	school, lesson, environmental, child, kids, project, class, waste, schoolchild, collection
6	Solving Waste Problems from Households and Companies	waste, garbage, container, recycling, site, container-related, MSW (municipal solid waste), collection, landfill, container site
7	Announcements of Initiatives and Competitions in Environmental Volunteering	volunteer, campaign, recyclables, this, all, point, Yarekomobil, thanks, help
8	Environmental Volunteering	bottle cap, kindergarten, thanks, school, kindergarten, child, cap charity, child, charity, parent
9	Protection of Birds and Animals Bred for Fur	bird, feeder, animal, species, chick, feathered, nest, this, which, inhabit
10	Environmental Software Products	game, clean game, clean, cup, cleanliness cup, trash, team, cleanliness, participant, complete
11	Eco-Friendly Approach to New Year Celebrations	New Year, gift, New Year’s, year, new, holiday, December, eco-friendly, friend, our
12	Educational and Practical Events on Forest Protection and Reforestation	planting, forest, to plant, tree, plant-a-forest, plant the forest, forest-related, agro-care, planting project, forest planting project
13	Environmental Optimization of Transport Logistics	electric car, automobile, km, electric, transport, bus, e-bus, company, charging, electric vehicle
14	Environmental Research and Volunteering in the Arctic and Antarctic	Arctic, expedition, Arctic, island, green Arctic, volunteer, northern, Arctic volunteer, polar, year
15	Environmental Optimization of the Fashion Industry	clothing, item, fashion, fabric, textile, recycling, wardrobe, which, collection, brand
16	Protection of Domestic and Wild Animals	dog, shelter, animal, stray, stray animal, pet, cat, help, food, owner
17	Waste from Household Appliances	battery, accumulator, battery collection, used, disposal, recycling, collection, container, MegapolisResource, hazardous
18	Environmental Advertising	price, sell, DM (direct message), rub, size, storage room, price rub, question DM, DM sell, delivery
19	Vegan and Eco-Friendly Catering Establishments	meat, product, food, plant-based, vegetarian, dish, vegetarianism, vegan, nutrition, restaurant
20	ESG-Themed Conferences	forum, environmental, project, development, Moscow, Russia, ecology, event, organization, participant
21	Emissions of Pollutants into Atmospheric Air	air, pollution, air pollution, city, emission, substance, atmosphere, enterprise, atmospheric, concentration
22	Problems of Pollution and Conservation of Water Resources	water, river, water-related, pollution, reservoir, drinking, drinking water, purification, can, water resource
23	Innovations in Legislation and Practice of Waste Management in Russia	waste, garbage, separate, collection, separate collection, Russia, recycling, year, landfill, region
24	Documentary Films on Environmental Topics	film, documentary, director, cinema, festival, documentary film, planet, world, which, screening
25	Climate Change and Related Business Transformation	climate, change, climate change, climatic, warming, global, global warming, temperature, consequence, gas
26	Changes in Environmental Practices During the Coronavirus Pandemic	coronavirus, vaccine, virus, pandemic, vaccination, human, inoculation, infection, case, disease
27	Book Exchanges Involving Libraries and the Public	book, book-related, library, auction, literature, storage room, bookcrossing, rural library, lot, our
28	Online Resources on Waste Management	nicotine, unique component, unique component spray, addiction harmful to health, formula helps quickly, addiction harm, health harm detailed, combined special, quick easy to quit, nicotine addiction harm
29	Item Exchange	album, album of new things accumulated, show off new things, house full of unnecessary items, ready to give away kindly, dress up and show off, dress up and show off new things, items ready to give away, album accumulated house, message admin
30	Event Ads for Item Exchange	arrival, clothes, item, pillowcase, storage room, new arrival, new, campaign, arrival campaign, top

,

Table A2. Topics (31–60).

ID	Topic Label	Keywords
31	Gardening in the City or Apartment	plant, flower, leaf, seed, fruit, species, red, variety, this, look
32	Weekends, Holidays, and School Days	tomorrow, morning, good, good morning, weekend, day, sleep, cleanup day, week, today
33	Possible Joint Activities for Children and Parents	Qiwi, rub Qiwi Qiwi, send rub Qiwi, send rub, rub Qiwi, Qiwi Qiwi, Qiwi send rub, Qiwi Qiwi send, Qiwi send, send
34	Environmental Practices in the Music Industry	concert, song, music, Ecoloft, musical, dance, sing, evening, sound, verse
35	Environmental Contests for the Public	contest, winner, prize, raffle, participant, congratulate, result, gift, receive
36	Trend Toward Eco-Friendly Fashion	dress, size, clothing, sell, price, thousand, women’s, women’s clothing, new, DM
37	Ecology and Smartphones	phone, equipment, smartphone, electronic, sell, GB, price, electronics, device, headphones
38	Educational and Monitoring Initiatives on Forest Protection	fire, forest, forest fire, flame, grass, forest, burn, bonfire, firefighter, dry
39	Eco-Trails, Nature Reserves, and Parks	reserve, park, natural, territory, mountain, island, lake, national, located, place
40	Environmental Festivals for Business and the Public	festival, master, master class, class, eco-festival, eco, event, environmental, take place, program
41	Birthdays of Eco-Activists, Eco-Projects, and Eco-Friendly Birthdays	birthday, birth, day, congratulate, wish, protected, dzo, let, our birth
42	Microplastics in the Ocean	ocean, microplastic, plastic, plastics, microplastic particles, particle, marine, plastic, scientist, water
43	Examples of Solar Energy Projects	solar, panel, battery, solar battery, energy, power plant, solar panel, solar power plant, solar energy, capacity
44	Benefits of Trees and Forests for Humans	tree, forest, oak, trunk, forest planting, birch, grow, sequoia, fir
45	The Everyday Life of a Family: Children, Daily Routine, and Values	child, stroller, bottle cap, girl, mother, kind, family, pantry, treatment, money
46	Greening of Production and Human Lifestyle	separately, bottle, bag, plastic, accept, film, campaign, bank, labeling, paper
47	Motives and Components of an Eco-Friendly Lifestyle	ecology, eco-friendly, ecological, life, nature, environment, surrounding, surrounding environment, human
48	Online Store Advertising	album, arrival, item leaving home, item leaving, leaving home, admin Igor, Igor, admin, leave, home number card
49	Online Eco-Oriented Marathons	marathon, protected, task, team, Friends of the Protected Islands, Friends of the Protected Islands marathon, participant, friend, protected island
50	Worms Beneficial for Nature	worm, worms, vermicomposter, substrate, biohumus, box, vermicomposting, compost, little worm, feed
51	Art and Ecology	artist, art, sculpture, painting, art, work, create, female artist, trash, own
52	Photography and Ecology	photography, photographer, photo, photoshoot, photo session, photo contest, album, frame, shooting
53	Environmental Awards	award, nomination, eco-positive, application, ecological, contest, project, eco-positive award, winner, year
54	Eco-Friendly New Year’s Tree	fir, New Year, tree, fir, woodchip, New Year tree, little fir, artificial, January, living
55	Protest Environmental Actions and Clean-Up Campaigns	action, sale, pantry, Sunday, clothes shoes, point, clothes, remotely, store location, shoes
56	Eco Practices in Coffee Shops	coffee, tea, cup, coffee-related, coffee shop, sachet, tea-related, cup, drink, disposable
57	Educational Environmental Events	nature, planet, human, our planet, Earth, protect, everything, life
58	Various Forms of Public Opinion Expression on Environmental Issues	clean, movement, Tatarstan, Clean movement, ecological, republican, republic, Republic of Tatarstan, willbecleantatarstan, ecological movement
59	Protection of Cetaceans, Including Dolphins	whale, dolphin, marine, mammal, shark, animal, marine mammal, whale-related, sea, species
60	Cycling Movement in Cities as an Eco-Friendly Practice	bicycle, cycling, transport, city, cyclist, car, bike ride, car day, day, movement

,

Table A3. Topics (61–90).

ID	Topic Label	Keywords
61	Volunteer Actions on Ecology and Health Topics	volunteer, Perm, recruitment, event, date time, date, volunteer age, number of volunteers, time commitment, commitment
62	Environmental Videos	video, clip, this video, watch, this, clip, video clip, our video, watch
63	Job Vacancies Related to Corporate Image and Recycling	work, vacancy, hour, schedule, side job, required, collector, day, hours per day, work
64	Fish Resources	fish, salmon, Rybinsk, river, marine, water, Sakhalin, fisherman, sea, species
65	Environmental Initiatives of Service Sector Companies and Recycling from the Population	lamp, mercury, mercury-containing, thermometer, LED, light bulb, dangerous, mercury-containing, energy-saving, hazardous waste
66	Forest Protection and Reforestation	forest, logging, tree, forest-related, deforestation, climate, tropical, ecosystem, gas, soil
67	Eco Practices and Innovations in the Lifecycle of Footwear	shoes, sneaker, pair, sole, recycle, material, old, recycling, old shoes, company
68	Protection of Wild Bears	bear, polar bear, white, cub, animal, polar bear, polar, female bear, brown, brown bear
69	Announcements on the Schedule of Environmental Initiatives	point, work, schedule, Lysva, work point, Tselinny, street, work, mode, work schedule
70	Growth of Green Energy, Green Jobs Boom, and Workforce Shortages	energy, renewable, source, energy source, renewable source, energy sector, electricity, renewable energy source, solar, geothermal
71	Results of Recycling Activities	kg, rubles, campaign, paper, glass, recyclables, thank, glass kg, kg glass, LLC
72	Robots Helping Solve Environmental Problems	robot, drone, unmanned, airplane, company, UAV, device, flight, assistance, capable
73	Eco-Friendly Healthcare	medicine, drug, expired, pill, blister, expired medicine, medication, disease, doctor, first aid kit
74	Searching for and Purchasing Eco-Friendly Goods	album, dress up and show off new items, album accumulates at home, show off new items album, new items album, new items album accumulates, task to write admin, show off new items, accumulates at home unused, ready to give kindly
75	Eco-Friendly Approach to Children’s Toys	toy, child, children, doll, material, children’s toy, exchange, item, develop, play
76	Loyalty to Cats and Support for Cat Cafés	cat, kitty, kitten, shelter, cat café, animal, feline, scratching post, bed
77	Litter on Earth and in Space	space-related, space, space debris, orbit, satellite, Mars, astronaut, Earth, trash, flight
78	Environmental Protest Actions and Their Consequences	rally, against, protest, activist, construction, picket, resident, landfill, region, Shies
79	Recommendations and Practical Actions by Producers and Consumers to Reduce Carbon Footprint	carbon, carbon footprint, footprint, emissions, gas, greenhouse, company, calculator, compensate, own carbon
80	Climate Change and Glaciers	glacier, ice, melting, glacier melting, Arctic, icy, Antarctica, scientist, year, change
81	Results of Environmental Volunteer Actions	ruble, amount, donation, money, contribution, collection, subscription, campaign, assistance
82	Eco Practices: Furniture Recycling and Use of Eco-Bags	bag, furniture, chair, IKEA, bag, old, string bag, eco bag, banner, material
83	Sustainable Development and Greening Activities of Regions and Companies	Russia, ecological, year, ecology, Russian, year ecology, rating, Moscow, environment, surrounding environment
84	Educational Environmental Initiatives and Green Marketing Services	eco-labeling, product, greenwashing, product, eco-friendly, sign, packaging, production, ecological, labeling
85	Eco-Friendly Practices in Winter	snow, winter, winter project, winter, snowy, winter project BBT, BBT, project BBT, Baikal, ice
86	Problems in Protecting Citizens’ Environmental Rights	violation, district, landfill, urban district, plot, control, waste, land, Solnechnogorsk, land plot
87	Environmentally-Oriented Educational Programs and University Competitions	school, teacher, USE (Unified State Exam) exam, education, exam, Russian, training, university, language, student
88	Opportunities of Wind Energy	wind-related, wind, turbine, blade, wind generator, energy, power station, windmill, wind turbine, wind power station
89	Holidays Related to Environmental Activities	day, Earth Day, Earth, worldwide, surrounding, planet, holiday, environment, World Day, environment
90	Social Advertising for Nature Protection	advertisement, social advertisement, poster, social, promotional, clip, billboard, nature, which, this

and

Table A4. Topics (91–109).

ID	Topic Label	Keywords
91	Eco-friendly Transport and Safe Urban Mobility	street point, location, person, travel, route, street, arrival, long-distance travel, come, starting point
92	Campaigns of Environmental Volunteer Centers	curator, campaign, point, street, separator, microdistrict, district, coordinator, eco center, square
93	Airlines: Harm of Activities and Its Compensation	oil, gas, infographic, energy sector, coal, airplane, emissions, energy infographic, EU, fuel
94	Communication with Internet Audience	news, question, column, post, group, subscribe, newsletter, community, your
95	Remote Work and Labor Trends in Russia	Russian, Russia, Russian, pandemic, year, salary, person, benefit, company, Snowden
96	Holidays Related to Volunteers and Philanthropists	day, holiday, Russia, congratulate, Russia Day, year, celebrated, country, all
97	Harm of Balloons to the Environment	air, balloons, balloon, air balloons, small balloon, air balloon, launch, sky, graduation, celebration
98	Humor on the Topic of Studying	humor, joke, comic, sound humor, stand-up, laughter, Ecoloft, eco humor, minute, real laboratory
99	Nature in Different Seasons	snowdrop, spring, autumn, day, spring-related, flower, forest planting, snowdrop day, April, winter
100	Harm of Cigarette Butts to the Environment	cigarette, butt, tobacco, cigarette-related, e-cigarette, smoking, tobacco-related, filter, electronic, alcohol tobacco
101	Giving a Second Life to Unnecessary Items or Waste	arrival, children’s arrival, new children’s arrival, new children’s, new, children, children’s arrival world, arrival world, buy item leaving, can buy item
102	Eco-Friendly House Construction	house, building, roof, wooden, architect, build, construction, wood, material, domed
103	Eco-Friendliness of Toothbrushes	brush, tooth, toothbrush, toothpaste, tooth paste, tube, recycling, plastic, bristle, tooth
104	Eco-Friendly Agriculture	permaculture, farming, soil, farm, Holzer, farmstead, plant, harvest, organic, natural farming
105	Eco-Tourism	tourism, ecotourism, eco-tourism, tourist-related, tourist, nature, rural, local, trail, travel
106	Cooperation on Environmental Issues	expert, ecological, survey, platform, question, eco-project, own, project, community, your
107	Benefits of Bees	bee, honey, insect, bee-related, beekeeper, pesticide, pollination, plant, pollinator, beekeeping
108	Creativity Using Recyclables	master, masterclass, class, lighthouse, Darina, draw, sign up, registration, material, Ecoloft
109	Ecology and Transport	ecomobile, accept, bottle, packaging, transparent, container, labeling, route, vial, glass

. The tables include the topic labels proposed by experts, as well as the lists of keywords describing each topic and generated by the topic model. To facilitate the assignment of labels, experts were provided for each topic with a list of keywords and five randomly selected texts corresponding to that topic. The experts were researchers in the field of green practices from the University of Tyumen, Russia. Due to the large volume of data, these example texts are not included in the tables; only the keywords and topic labels are presented. In the original dataset, both keywords and topic labels were in Russian. In this paper, we provide their English translations. The topics are ordered according to their frequency of occurrence.

This study utilized exclusively publicly available data from VKontakte online communities. All data were collected and processed in strict accordance with the platform’s terms of service. To protect user privacy, no personal identifiers (such as usernames, user IDs, or links to personal profiles) were extracted or stored during data collection. The analysis was performed on aggregated textual data and topic models, ensuring the anonymity of individual users. Furthermore, the research protocol was reviewed by the institutional ethics committee, which confirmed that formal approval was not required for this type of study, as it relies on the analysis of publicly accessible information (Certificate from the School of Law and Public Administration, University of Tyumen).

3.3. Analyzing Topics

At the second stage of the research, experts were invited to analyze the results of the topic analysis. The experts are scientists with many years of experience researching environmental issues and working within scientific teams. The experts had access to a table containing the identified topics and the ability to review example posts from each topic. Three experts received the following instructions:

1.

Analyze the results of the topic modeling: keywords, examples.

2.

Determine which social practices correspond to each topic.

3.

Compile a list of social practices mentioned in the posts of environmental communities.

Each expert independently compiled a list of social practices mentioned in the posts. The experts were not limited in the number of social practices they identified in each topic. Subsequently, the three experts discussed points 2 and 3 of the instructions and reached a consensus regarding the final list of social practices.

The final list comprises 80 practices (

Table 1. Social practices mentioned in the posts of environmental communities. The list of practices is ordered alphabetically.

Practices (1–20)	Practices (21–40)	Practices (41–60)	Practices (61–80)
1. Advocating for a zero-waste lifestyle	21. Developing environmental self-awareness	41. Mapping environmental practices, including through volunteer efforts	61. Promoting eco-goods (and pseudo-eco-goods)
2. Banning and restricting single-use plastic	22. Developing green online platforms	42. Mapping green and protected areas	62. Promoting eco-responsible business
3. Building an environmental culture	23. Developing green urban reforms (including urban decarbonization)	43. Mapping pollution sources	63. Promoting eco-transport
4. Caring for stray animals (cats, dogs)	24. Engaging in tree planting initiatives	44. Monitoring water pollution	64. Promoting environmental responsibility
5. Choosing eco-friendly purchases	25. Exchanging items, toys, books	45. Organizing eco-friendly holidays and Zero Waste events	65. Promoting the Zero-Waste concept (refusing single-use products, using eco-friendly products)
6. Cleaning Arctic zone of litter	26. Feeding birds via feeders	46. Organizing eco-networking events	66. Protecting natural world objects
7. Cleaning areas of litter and waste	27. Fostering eco-responsibility	47. Organizing environmental education	67. Protesting against greenwashing
8. Collecting hazardous waste for disposal (batteries, mercury thermometers, lamps)	28. Greening production (manufacturing products from plastic waste)	48. Organizing environmental education for enterprise employees	68. Purchasing more eco-friendly goods
9. Collecting plastic caps for charity	29. Greening the production and consumption of smart gadgets	49. Organizing environmental education/lessons about nature reserves and parks	69. Raising funds to help rare and endangered animal species
10. Composting food waste	30. Handing over electronics and batteries for recycling	50. Organizing environmental festivals and competitions (e.g., video contests, volunteers helping birds)	70. Raising money to rent premises for an eco-center
11. Conducting environmental control and supervision activities	31. Hiring staff for green jobs	51. Organizing green offices	71. Recycling Christmas trees
12. Conducting workshops	32. Implementing alternative energy sources	52. Participating in eco-initiatives (art practices, tree planting)	72. Recycling plastic waste from the ocean
13. Creating circular production systems	33. Implementing ESG strategies at enterprises	53. Participating in protest actions	73. Refusing balloon releases
14. Creating cycling and pedestrian zones	34. Informing about climate change	54. Playing eco-games (computer, board, offline; for public and business consumers)	74. Refusing single-use items (e.g., single-use tableware in favor of deposit-based reusable containers)
15. Creating eco-friendly products (e.g., batteries)	35. Informing about eco-routes	55. Practicing vegetarian nutrition	75. Repairing broken items (e.g., mobile phones)
16. Cultivating a caring attitude towards trees	36. Informing about memorable dates for eco-activists	56. Promoting a sustainable lifestyle and eco-habits	76. Screening and discussing environmental films
17. Delivering informational environmental lectures	37. Informing about the contribution of worms to nature conservation	57. Promoting alternative energy	77. Selling eco-goods
18. Developing and implementing mobile apps for solving environmental problems (e.g., sorting plastic)	38. Informing about the results of environmental research (on micro-pollution and mitigation methods)	58. Promoting eco-expeditions / eco-travel	78. Separating waste
19. Developing eco-technologies	39. Informing about the use of solar panels, wind turbines	59. Promoting eco-friendly agriculture	79. Studying product labeling
20. Developing environmental research (studying pollution sources and cleanup solutions, climate and environmental research)	40. Mapping cycling and pedestrian zones	60. Promoting eco-friendly construction	80. Teaching sustainable fashion

).

The identified social practices were systematized according to various criteria.

1.

Actors of practices:

• Business (organizations, enterprises);
• The state (mentioned relatively infrequently);
• Public organizations, including NGOs, environmentally oriented movements.

2.

Objects of practices:

• Forests (cultivating a caring attitude towards trees, organizing tree planting, engaging in planting initiatives);
• Stray animals;
• Household;
• Greening of the activities, products, and services of enterprises.

3.

Informational and educational events:

• Event formats: lectures, webinars, informational forums, conferences, networking events (with and without discussion, unilateral information provision).
• Event focus: developing environmental thinking, responsibility, awareness; educating and informing about existing environmental practices, environmental problems, eco-tourism; promoting an eco-friendly lifestyle; promotional messages from company representatives offering eco-friendly goods and services; inciting public protests, primarily against company activities and the construction of infrastructure projects.

4.

Educational initiatives of various orientations:

• For businesses, including environmental professionals and other decision-makers in the field of ecology;
• For employees of enterprises who are parents, to transmit eco-practices within families;
• For the general public.

5.

Creation of digital maps containing environmentally significant information:

• Mapping specially protected natural areas and other green zones offering recreational opportunities and pedestrian trails;
• Mapping cycling routes to expand the use of eco-friendly transport;
• Mapping the locations of establishments implementing eco-practices (recycling and hazardous waste collection points, cafes, restaurants, animal shelters, package-free stores);
• Mapping pollution sources (executed by specialists from environmental organizations or volunteers; maps are created in Russian and foreign languages, making them accessible to tourists, foreign students, etc.).

6.

Environmental competitions:

• For businesses;
• For the general public, including creatively oriented contests (photo, film creation).

7.

Awarding environmental prizes:

• To businesses (organizations, enterprises);
• To individuals (volunteers, etc.).

8.

Engaging people in eco-practices (recruitment), including:

• Recruiting participants from the public (i.e., volunteers, e.g., for forest planting initiatives);
• Recruiting staff—future employees for public environmental organizations themselves.

9.

Fundraising:

• For aiding shelters for stray animals and protecting wildlife;
• For renting premises for eco-centers (indicating that this activity needs support from sponsors or state funding).

10.

Practical activities involving active citizens and volunteers:

• Forest maintenance and tree planting;
• Clean-up campaigns;
• Separate waste collection: hazardous waste to minimize its release into the environment and the associated consequences; recyclable waste to ensure it is processed into useful products;
• Item exchange: toys, clothes.

11.

Practices of refusal:

• Refusing a non-eco-friendly product in favor of another, more eco-friendly alternative;
• Refusing to purchase a product altogether.

12.

The practices by companies, organizations, and enterprises in greening their activities and developing the ESG concept, including:

• Alternative energy;
• Circular economy, waste recycling: recycling household waste (commonly mentioned practices include recycling Christmas trees, plastic, including plastic collected from the ocean); recycling industrial waste;
• Creating and advertising environmentally improved products, including: products with objectively improved environmental aspects; pseudo-eco-friendly products (marketed as eco-friendly without sufficient grounds = greenwashing).

4. Discussion

4.1. Alignment with National Policy and Public Engagement

Public support is a key condition for the successful implementation and long-term sustainability of climate protection measures [21,25]. The most viable changes are those that already resonate with and begin to take root within society. Therefore, the aim of this research was to identify the social practices mentioned in environmental social media communities and assess their potential for behavioral change and integration into climate policy.

A strong example of public engagement in climate policy implementation is the social practices associated with the national project “Ecology” in Russia. This was one of Russia’s national projects for the period of 2019–2024. The project included four focus areas: waste management, reduction of air and water pollution, and biodiversity conservation. Topics related to these areas are among the 25 most frequently mentioned. The necessity of implementing measures under this policy is reinforced by the creation of the largest online communities by number of subscribers: “Ecology of Russia” (333,638 subscribers; goal—promoting respect for nature), the “Russian Geographical Society” (254,480 subscribers; goal—collecting and disseminating geographical, statistical, and ethnographic information about Russia), and “Water of Russia” (245,724 subscribers; goal—supporting clean rivers and lakes in your region). One focus area of the “Ecology” project—waste management—is closely intertwined with social practices of separate waste collection and organizing circular production systems. These practices are included in topics 0, 6, and 7 by mention frequency. The next area - reducing air pollution - corresponds to topic 21 by mention frequency and includes practices such as air pollution monitoring, creating environmental maps of major polluters, etc. Improving the quality of drinking water and rehabilitating water bodies, another project area, correspond to topics 4 and 22 by mention frequency, including practices like research on plastic in water, cleaning river and lake banks of waste. The fourth area of the national project—biodiversity conservation—can be linked to topic 9 (practices of helping birds in cold winter periods), topic 12 (planting new trees), and topic 16 (related to stray animals), as well as mapping green and protected zones, informing about the danger of forest fires and prevention skills, fundraising to help rare species, and eco-tourism. Thus, Russia has experience in achieving political environmental goals through the use of social practices. This experience can be applied to other environmental practices mentioned in online communities, including within climate policy implementation.

4.2. The Russian Context: Digital Compensation for Institutional Deficit

Placing these findings in a global context reveals both similarities and a distinct Russian particularity. The focus on waste management and sustainable consumption mirrors trends observed in digital environmental communities worldwide, underscoring a shared grassroots emphasis on consumption-based solutions. However, the Russian case makes a unique contribution to the global literature on digital activism and practice theory by demonstrating how online communities compensate for a specific institutional deficit. In contexts with robust participatory governance, digital platforms often supplement existing channels. In Russia, by contrast, they become a primary infrastructure for the formation of collective action and shared meanings around sustainability, effectively substituting for the lack of formal citizen assemblies or inclusive policy-making forums outlined in the theoretical framework. This highlights how the manifestation of digital activism and the function of online platforms in shaping social practices are critically shaped by the national political context.

4.3. Systemic Interventions and Practice Interconnections

The obtained data confirm the inefficacy of the “consumer guilt” approach. For instance, some Russians are not refusing to participate in separate waste collection but have counter-demands for accessible and convenient infrastructure, as well as better information in this area [71]. Therefore, besides the aforementioned topics related to waste separation itself, it is important to mention topics related to educating and raising awareness among children and adults—topics 5, 8, 10, 20, 24. The research confirms the need for systemic solutions [7]: not only infrastructure and education are required, but also the implementation of new circular economy models that allow turning waste into raw materials (topics 13, 15). Mapping bicycle routes to expand the practice of using eco-friendly transport is a successful example of a systemic solution: a special application not only provides routes for cyclists but also helps add new routes to the map. This is an example of developing a social practice through digital tools, increasing awareness, and enhancing engagement in an eco-friendly social practice. Thus, the focus shifts from an individual to a collective action.

The practice theory approach is also heuristic for understanding connections between practices: a number of practices follow the principle of complementarity, forming chains of practices. For example, the first stage is studying product labeling, followed by choosing eco-friendly purchases. Developing such practices requires building efforts in both directions (topic 18). There are also “mirror” practices that complement each other on the principle that one does not work without the other (their implementation requires efforts from at least two different actors). For instance, the practices of separate waste collection and handing over waste for recycling require actions from both those who sort the waste and those who collect and transport it for recycling (topic 17). Another example is social practices selling eco-goods, promoting eco-goods, choosing eco-friendly purchases (topic 15) require actions from both the consumer and the producer. There are also social practices that discredit the idea of environmental practices, such as advertising pseudo-eco-products (a form of greenwashing). This misleads people and hinders the engagement of new participants in environmental social practices.

Due to the weak development of institutional foundations for the collective promotion of eco-friendly social practices in Russia [72,73], communities of people implementing environmental practices are formed and coordinated in the online environment, which becomes a necessary infrastructural element for many environmental practices. Eco-networking, volunteer initiatives, and educational projects in the online environment disseminate knowledge about practices and form a shared meaning field: to live consciously and sustainably [6]. An example of a collectively shared meaning is the Zero Waste culture, underlying many new consumer practices, such as choosing eco-friendly purchases or refusing non-eco-friendly ones. Scholars emphasize that through “voting with their wallets”, new actors engage in environmental practices by expanding structural opportunities for different types of collective actions, including through the digitalization of the consumer environment [17,24]. Thus, digital communities can compensate for the institutional deficit of collective forms of interaction for solving environmental problems. The research also showed that many social practices cannot be implemented solely through the collective efforts of producers [37,38]. For example, refusing single-use plastic depends not only on consumer choice but also on state bans and the availability of alternatives. Therefore, practices of companies, organizations, and enterprises in greening their activities become crucial, including creating and advertising environmentally improved products, products with objectively better environmental aspects, products made from recycled plastic, etc. [42,44]. In this case, companies are involved in creating new materials and infrastructure for social practices [41]. The widespread adoption of the ESG concept contributes to creating new, more environmentally friendly meanings for activities, and corporate training becomes an important channel for disseminating environmental skills.

4.4. Verification of Hypotheses on Practice Domains and Discourse

The findings of this study provide strong support for our initial hypotheses. Confirming Hypothesis 1, the analysis revealed that the most prevalent social practices were indeed concentrated in the domains of waste management (e.g., separate collection, recycling) and sustainable consumption (e.g., eco-friendly purchases, refusing single-use plastic). These domains represent areas of high household agency and immediate visibility, aligning with the theoretical expectation that grassroots initiatives often target routinized consumption behaviors. Similarly, Hypothesis 2 was strongly supported. The discourse within the communities extensively elaborated on the elements of social practices beyond mere action: posts detailed the competences required (e.g., how to read product labels, how to compost correctly) and actively constructed the meanings behind the actions by framing them in terms of personal responsibility, care for nature, and participation in a collective “Zero Waste” culture. This demonstrates that Russian environmental online communities function not merely as bulletin boards for actions, but as dynamic platforms for the co-construction and dissemination of the complete structure of social practices.

4.5. Policy Implications and Pathways for Institutional Uptake

With the escalating climate agenda, assessing social practices from the perspective of their climate impact is becoming particularly relevant [22,28]. In this sense, the research demonstrated a set of practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Practices of sharing items—bicycles, books, toys—are widespread, allowing for a reduction in resource and energy use for manufacturing and also reducing waste production, which also emits greenhouse gases. Most communities have posts on this topic. Practices of exchange and repair, mentioned in the communities, also serve reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This means we can carefully study the necessary infrastructure, knowledge, and meanings for scaling these important practices [11]. This study directly addresses a critical policy and knowledge gap in Russia: the poor translation of bottom-up practices into formal policy. Our findings expose a disconnect; while a rich ecosystem of social practices exists in online communities, the institutional mechanisms to identify, monitor, and integrate them into climate policy are absent. This gap represents a significant missed opportunity for enhancing the legitimacy and effectiveness of climate action. However, the situation could change with the development of various forms of actor participation in formulating and implementing national adaptation plans [74]. With the potential development of a network of regional Climate Advisory Councils and the creation of dialogue platforms for sharing adaptation experience, the assessment and ranking of existing social practices will be of great importance [22,25]. Moreover, this concerns not only the practices of public organizations; the experience with alternative energy sources, creating green offices, and implementing green innovations by the corporate sector will also be important [13]. However, it is worth emphasizing that the topic of climate change itself ranks only 25th in terms of mention frequency.

5. Conclusions

This study systematically identified and categorized the social practices discussed within Russian environmental online communities by applying topic modeling (BERTopic) to nearly 190,000 VKontakte posts, followed by expert evaluation. This approach allowed us to map a diverse ecosystem of 80 grassroots practices focused on waste management, sustainable consumption, and education. The findings demonstrate that these digital communities function as vital platforms for sharing practical knowledge and fostering shared meanings, thereby compensating for the lack of formal public participation in Russia’s climate policy.

The identified practices represent a significant, yet untapped, resource for climate mitigation and adaptation. They offer policymakers ready-made, socially-supported algorithms for behavioral change in high-emission domains like consumption and mobility. Future research should explore the dynamics of these practices over time and develop automated tools for their monitoring, enabling a more responsive and evidence-based climate policy that leverages bottom-up initiatives.

Based on the obtained results, public support for climate policy measures can be fostered in the following ways, which carry direct policy implications:

1.

Public authorities can systematically integrate the identified, publicly-supported social practices into formal climate adaptation and mitigation strategies. This involves recognizing these grassroots actions as viable, ready-made policy instruments that have already gained traction within the population.

2.

Public authorities should leverage online communities as strategic communication and engagement channels to promote climate policy measures, co-create solutions, and mobilize public participation on a large scale, thereby enhancing the legitimacy and reach of state-led initiatives.

3.

Policymaking processes for climate action should formally incorporate activists and representatives from influential environmental online communities. Their involvement in discussions and decision-making can bridge the gap between institutional policy design and grassroots realities, fostering a sense of ownership and increasing the likelihood of public acceptance.

4.

Funding mechanisms within national and regional climate programs should be allocated to support events and projects organized by these online communities. Providing material support for proven, community-driven initiatives represents a high-impact investment for implementing tangible climate actions and building social capital.

This study provides a foundational methodology for monitoring social practices in online communities, which opens several clear pathways for future research. First, a longitudinal analysis is needed to track the evolution and dynamics of these practices over time, revealing how they emerge, diffuse, and decline. Second, future work should investigate the context of specific communities by linking the identified practices to community-specific goals, sizes, and locations to understand the drivers behind different practice portfolios. Finally, to scale the analysis, this dataset enables the development of supervised machine learning models; by using the identified practices as a labeled training set, future research can create specialized classifiers for the automated, real-time detection of social practices in vast streams of social media data, ultimately providing policymakers with a dynamic tool for monitoring public engagement and behavioral trends.