Inspired to build a better world for her children, Orange is the New Black star Yael Stone has transformed from an actor to a climate communicator (who still does a bit of acting).
Her phoenix moment rose from the ashes of 2019/20’s Black Summer.
“I experienced a lot of anxiety,” says Yael, who was living in Bulli, her eldest child aged two at the time. “How am I going to meaningfully raise her with joy and hope for the future?” she wondered.
After the fires, the NIDA graduate went back to university, studying Sustainable Communities at UOW. Primed by memories of her grandfather, a Newcastle steelworker, Yael learned from social scientist Chantel Carr about the risks of industrial change and the history of “steel cities blues”.
“My concern is that a whole bunch of really amazing renewable projects come into the area, but we haven’t worked on upskilling our local talent and people from outside the region get the benefit of all those jobs,” she says. “That’s a recipe for a real social sickness.
“We have the chance to tell an amazing story here because we’ve got so much local talent, so much local history in that industrial space, that energy transformation here could tell a story for the nation.”
What began as an idea for a short documentary became a not-for-profit called Hi Neighbour, which turned one in April.
Working in a circular model, Hi Neighbour supercharges cash – raised via crowdfunding, grants and philanthropy – by loaning it to businesses to install large-scale solar, then using the interest from repayments to fund scholarships for local workers to upskill for renewable jobs.
It’s transformative for businesses with big power bills and roof space. Two companies owned and operated by longtime locals – Bellambi’s Buckaroo Leatherworks and Unanderra’s Thomas Creative – are not only enjoying the financial rewards of slashing their energy costs, but the feel-good effects of climate action, immediately reducing emissions and later helping local workers.
“The personal growth for me, as somebody in their late 30s to say to myself, I’m going to do a totally new thing, is immense,” Yael says. “The fuel at the heart of it is I know the work is really important. Nothing has been this rewarding in my professional life.
“Red carpets were never that much fun for me. I’m not really suited to that stuff.”
Hi Neighbour’s first partnership was with Buckaroo Leatherworks, owned by Tanya Van Der Water. “Her second youngest child and my first child are thick as thieves, so we became friends and we’ve become very close. Tanya is actually on the board of Hi Neighbour. She’s an amazingly accomplished woman in so many ways, as a business leader and as a thinker. Buckaroo is an innovative brand, and a lot of that is about her. She came into that leadership role at quite a young age, took over from her father after he passed.”
Hi Neighbour funded Buckaroo to put on a 99.kW solar system with 220 panels, cutting their emissions by 100 tons of CO2 a year. The interest from that loan will fund a scholarship round named after Buckaroo.
Hi Neighbour’s first round, helping electricians qualify for solar work, was designed to sit alongside the Electrify 2515 initiatives for households.
Yael is inspired by the work of Dr Saul Griffith. She forged a connection with Rewiring Australia’s chief using an unconventional angle. “I went to a talk he gave in Sydney … someone asked, so what gives you hope? And he said, the CWA of Australia, it’s the women of Australia, the small community organisations that make the shift happen.
“So the subject of my email was, ‘I Am Your CWA Woman!’”
Yael’s board is stacked with talent. “We’ve got Steve Blume, the previous president of the Smart Energy Council, Scott Hamilton, an emeritus professor in hydrogen.” Former coal miner Darryl Best and metallurgical engineer Greg Knight are core team members. Xavier Mayes has been “amazing” in his role as scholarship coordinator and Yael is also grateful to Parul Punjabi Jagdish, Jen Owens, Diane Lawrence, Carly Young and Elana Stone, Anna Martin and Madeline Holmes.
Each scholarship round focuses on different sectors in renewables and jobs supported might range from solar installers to chemical engineers. One thing stays the same: Hi Neighbour prioritises coal and steelworkers and their families, to show support for those workers shifting into renewables.
Storytelling is where her old and new worlds collide. Yael is making short films about her work and still accepts the odd acting job, including in One Night, filmed on our coast in 2023 (“because it was a beautiful script, but it was also about home”), and recently The Correspondent, starring Richard Roxburgh as journalist Peter Greste. “All the stuff I did was set in Mogadishu and Nairobi, but it was all shot in Sydney and Shellharbour, at the airport.”
Living in Wollongong is a dream she’s had since a teenager on the train from Sydney to Jervis Bay (“it spoke to me, the escarpment in this particular configuration with the ocean, just something so protective and contained”).
Yael shares her life and her children with Jack Manning Bancroft, the Bundjalung social entrepreneur who founded AIME (Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience). Jack is her “cheerleader”, understanding the practical challenges of running an organisation. “He’s there at the end of the day and we can talk through things after the carnival of putting children to bed.”
It’s been a difficult year as a public figure speaking up for peace, human rights and clean energy. Dinner table discussions, though, are controversial only in a way familiar to all parents.
“It’s more like ‘you eat two more broccoli and maybe you can have some ice-cream’,” she says, laughing.
On the upside, Yael doesn’t feel so anxious any more. “I’m not saying, oh, my anxiety’s cured.
“I, like a lot of parents, worry about what are the jobs my kids are going to have in the future, what’s the world going to look like? Working on that future to be as positive as it can be is the best way I’ve found to alleviate my anxiety – because I’m there in that hope space.”
Visit www.hineighbour.com.au