# 4 Reducing your carbon footprint

Calculating your individual carbon footprint using the OU carbon calculator gives you a good idea of the contribution to the total footprint made by your choices regarding energy, food, travel, etc. You’ll also know how your carbon footprint compares to that of the mean footprint per person for the UK or another country.

Unless you already live a very ‘green’ lifestyle, it’s unlikely that your footprint will be light enough (at 2 to 3 tonnes CO2e) to be compatible with long-term environmental sustainability, or at least to help avoid dangerous climate change in the coming decades.

This section, therefore, discusses targets for reducing carbon footprints towards an environmentally sustainable level. At the end of the section, you’ll then use the carbon calculator again to explore options for reducing your footprint towards such targets.

OpenLearn - Environment: treading lightly on the Earth
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