Caring about stuff alone is never virtue signaling. Telling people you care about stuff can be, especially if you think your audience agrees with you:

“Virtue signalling is the act of expressing opinions or stances that align with popular moral values, often through social media, with the intent of demonstrating one’s good character. The term virtue signalling is frequently used pejoratively to suggest that the person is more concerned with appearing virtuous than with actually supporting the cause or belief in question.”