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Your carbon footprint is the total carbon sum of your actions, be it when you travel, when you shop, when you eat, when you bathe - any action that uses up fossil fuels such as oil, coal or gas. [Source]

What does "be it" mean in the above context. What can be use instead of "be it" there?
I need some simple example to understand that usage of "be it".

Mari-Lou A
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AR AM
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  • A quick google search of "what does be it mean" will yield many answers. – Aleksandr Hovhannisyan Mar 16 '17 at 16:38
  • It is the subjunctive case, as substitute for whether. – Yosef Baskin Mar 16 '17 at 16:45
  • It's an old construction, now a frozen form that must be preposed. It is short for 'whether it be', which is itself an archaic form of 'whether it is'. As noted, it's confusing, and thus it's bad practice to use it, just like it is bad practice to use other consciously archaic language in text that is meant for information. – John Lawler Mar 16 '17 at 16:53

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