Trinidad and Global
SUSTAINABILITY ENTREPRENEURSHIP
2020-2120

Entrepreneurship - Stardust

[ OVERVIEW ]

Stardust Life-Centered Design is a Caribbean-born creative strategy practice founded in 2020 on the belief that when life becomes the organizing principle of design, everything transforms. Led by Giselle as Founder & CEO through 2023 and now stewarded as a 100-year vision, Stardust bridges ecological intelligence, cultural resilience, and global innovation. Our work champions the Caribbean as a leading laboratory for climate solutions and regenerative creativity, shaping futures where humans and the planet can thrive through design that collaborates with life, rather than opposes it.

Case Study Details - Stardust Life Centered Design

Activities

Bespoke projects, education, thought leadership

Speaker series, international recognition, client work

Successes

Goal

Create legacy-worthy synergy between design and nature

[ HIGHLIGHTS ]

Designing in Partnership with all of life.

Life-Centered Design

Stardust is built on the belief that life - not extraction - can guide every decision we make. We integrate biomimicry and regenerative thinking into real-world projects across the Caribbean and the globe, transforming design from a tool of aesthetic into a pathway for ecological and cultural thriving. Our approach is rigorous yet imaginative, activating solutions that honour place, community, and the intelligence of nature. We add value particularly in thought leadership and brand curation at various stages of a company’s life cycle.

Designing Climate Futures

We are actively working on the frontiers of climate adaptation — where science, technology, and creativity converge. Through initiatives like Manufactured Ecosystems, we explore new models for living with change, supporting communities and ecosystems facing escalating uncertainty. We pursue ideas with high ambition and high integrity, translating complex environmental challenges into clear design interventions that help society move from crisis response to long-term thriving.

Local and Global Impact

Based in Trinidad & Tobago with international reach, Stardust connects Caribbean ingenuity and knowledge with global expertise and context. Whether convening speakers from five continents or contributing to cutting-edge adaptation research, we ensure that knowledge moves in both directions — uplifting local perspectives while influencing global sustainability agendas. By anchoring innovation in regional wisdom, we help shape solutions that are equitable, resilient, and deeply rooted in identity.

Collaboration and Action

From the details™ Speaker Series to transdisciplinary research partnerships, we believe collaboration is the engine of transformation. Stardust creates inclusive spaces where scientists, designers, educators, entrepreneurs, and culture-makers connect around shared purpose. Our dialogue-driven work brings new insights into motion — making climate innovation accessible, relatable, and actionable. We build trust, spark creativity, and empower partners to prototype futures that serve all of life.

Selected Projects

Canada’s Ministry of Innovation, Science and Economic Development “New Frontiers” Grant, which supports “world-leading interdisciplinary, high-risk, high-reward research”

Stardust was part of a global consortium of researchers and innovators that delivered a proposal and over the course of two years, a successful project that elevated speculative climate fiction through an art exhibition and online repository of various artists’ work.

*details - the bespoke speaker series connecting design, business and sustainability practitioners

For charities focused on climate change initiatives, corporate partnerships are crucial. When I worked with TreeSisters, our first major corporate partnership was a strategic campaign and initiative with Pukka Herbal Tea, at the time part of the Unilever portfolio of brands, now part of Lipton Teas and Infusions. Some corporations are larger than many economies in the world, and as such the responsibility of commerce is greater than ever. As change and uncertainty define so much of the global economic landscape, organisations must adapt to changing conditions at scale while re-orienting toward their deeper values - as well as the values of society as a whole.

Ultimately, this multi-year partnership led to well over 750,000 trees planted, as well as continued collaboration on carbon credit balance, and more nuanced sustainability goal-setting.

  • In 2018 TreeSisters started a relationship with Pukka Herbal Tea, at first with a campaign for making Black Friday Green by planting a tree for every online purchase over the Black Friday to Cyber Monday weekend. The campaign was incredibly successful, and led to a deepening of the relationship. In 2019, Pukka released an even more ambitious campaign, rolling out their funding of tree planting to all products, in the Unleash Your Power Within campaign.

    For both of these campaigns I liaised with the Pukka Marketing Team by representing the TreeSisters brand as design advisory, as well as producing press release materials on behalf of the TreeSisters brand. Pukka Herbs is truly business as a force of nature, and is hopefully one of many many more to take the lead in their sector.

    It is essential for our daily activities to be embedded with restoration; Pukka is proof that this can be done thoughtfully and effectively. The challenge that presents itself to us is that our everyday lives are in many ways, exactly the opposite, and our world has normalised taking from nature constantly.

    If we reframe everyday actions as acts of reciprocity for the planet, we unleash the power of us all.

Understanding how corporate donations drive reforestation results at meaningful scale.

Understanding Reforestation Funding

How can organisations actively participate in creating a better world for all, while retaining or even increasing profit? There are a variety of approaches that can be taken. In order to work closely with a variety of organisations, TreeSisters worked with a customised and relationship-based approach.

The infographic at left illustrates the use of funds, typically a conversation starter, and why it is so crucial to have this synergistic approach.

Community Awareness

Mass awareness and encouraging communities to take responsibility for climate change mitigation are much needed in order to create the conditions for large scale restoration.

One of the ways that businesses partner with charities is by transaction - for example Pukka Herbs collaboration with TreeSisters. Pukka have committed to planting a tree for every product sold, and have made an enduring impact.