Youth’s conscious environmental behavior within the framework of sustainable territorial development

Ecological behavior is determined by consciousness, features of ecological culture and upbringing of an individual. In this case, an important role is played by enlightenment and education, which further infl uence the rationality of deeds, specifi c actions or inaction, a person’s own responsible and thrifty attitude to the environment and nature. Today, the environmental agenda is a relevant component not only in building socio-economic relations, but also in the political aspect, as more and more often it is ESG-principles that become dominant in making political decisions. The aim of the research is to determine the youth’s attitude to their own rational environmental behavior, as well as to assess the role and formats of responsibility for solving environmental problems at the regional level. We use our own tools (questionnaire) to conduct a pilot study in two regions: in the south-east of the Moscow Oblast and in the Ryazan Oblast. Despite the fact that the regions border each other, we have revealed fundamentally different points of view on many issues. The uniqueness of the work lies in the fact that we have compared the obtained results with the results of similar studies by VCIOM. The average assessment of the studied regions differs almost twice from the comparison base. This difference proves the necessity of local regional crosssections, as only in this case it is possible to identify regional features. The value of our results (at this stage of the research) lies in the study of regional specifi cs of the identifi ed problem. The obtained data and survey methodology can be used by specialists and regional authorities to address environmental issues.