This year Caritas Australia launched a new initiative, the Be more Challenge. Inspired by the words of Archbishop Oscar Romero 'Aspire not to have more, but to be more', the Be more Challenge encourages Australians to take action for environmental and social justice by setting themselves 5 challenges – personal, family, local, national and global.

members of the online community also participate in an annual event – Be moreWeekend, which took place for the first time from the - 9 August 2009. Over , 35 people from across Australia committed themselves, to 'be just. be green. be more' for three days.

Actions included:

• families putting away the car keys and choosing public transport, getting dirty in their local parks by clearing rubbish, conducting a family audit to assess the impact of their daily actions, turning off the TV and playing the Be more board game to learn more about the impacts of global poverty and climate change;
• schools turning off their lights and teaching outdoors, planting vegetable gardens, having no waste days, Be more camp outs with minimal materials and food;
• parishes having parish picnics and forums about climate change and consumption.

A number of participants donated the money they saved on cutting consumption to Caritas Australia to assist climate change adaptation programs in Bangladesh and programs in countries that are working to build community resilience to a changing climate, such as natural resource management in india, sustainable agriculture in Africa, and disaster risk reduction in Pacific islands.

All of these creative actions were taken with a consciousness of our responsibility to act for climate justice and to ensure that Australia takes initiative on mitigation.