The first Lime Tree Café opened its doors in Jumeirah, Dubai, in 2001. A lot has happened since then and today there are 5 branches. The Lime Tree serves breakfast and lunch and menu is made up of dishes full of with fresh vegetables and fruit, grains, pulses, nuts and seeds. You will also find a variety of delicious home-baked goods (including their famous carrot cake) and fair-trade organic teas and coffee, and healthy smoothies. If you are looking for some beautiful kitchenware, confectionery and homemade preserves, you can eat your heart out at Provisions, their in-house stores. Here you’ll find items such as cutting boards, artisan crackers, homemade chutneys and homemade fudge.

Sustainability is one of the key values of the operations at the Lime Tree Café. From the beginning their mission has been to use only biodegradable packaging, avoiding plastic totally to ensure contribution to landfill is minimized. Napkins, bags and boxes from recycled unbleached materials are used. The café is the only company in Dubai to use fully compostable carry bags, made from certified materials – which decompose in a short time.

Being a sustainable company means transparency and in line with that, the company has posted their sustainability policy on their website:

To operate our business, always mindful to operate in a sustainable manner & be fully HACCP certified with full traceability
To comply with, and exceed where possible, all applicable legislations
To work with suppliers who operate organic, sustainable and ethical methods of employment.
To integrate sustainability considerations into all our business decisions.
To ensure that all staff are fully aware of our Sustainability Policy and are committed to implementing and improving it, on an ongoing basis.
To minimise the impact on sustainability of all office and transportation activities – by tightly controlling logistics
To use recycled or recyclable materials wherever possible
To review and continually strive to improve our sustainability performance.

So far the company has achieved the following in terms of sustainability:

Biodegradable Cake & Takeaway Boxes – since 2001
Takeaway Cutlery has always been biodegradable
Recycled unbleached napkins - since 2007
Takeaway Salad Pots – Plastic removed - & replaced with biodegradable product – 2009
Cold Drinks Cups – Plastic removed & replaced with biodegradable product – 2009
Retail Cookies Bags – all biodegradable – since 2013, & now even better, fully compostable since 2018
Customer Takeaway Bags – implemented compostable – 2017
All straws eliminated March 2018 – changed to unbleached paper
Cling film reduced by 80% across the company since 2019

Behind the scenes, at the offices of the company, there are also plenty of sustainability efforts:

Only filtered water is used in all offices and staff pantry areas – to fully eliminate single use plastic bottles

Any unused food or excess food is distributed to staff and donated – to avoid unnecessary food wastage.
All plastic bin liners have been removed since 2016 in all office rubbish bins
Minimization of the use of paper and other consumables by only printing where absolutely necessary, and when doing so, printing double sided and reducing waste
Recycle all consumables where possible in the baking processes.
Reduce energy consumption by educating staff not to use lights when not necessary. Ensure AC’s are turned off in cooler months or in areas and offices not in use.
Introduce washing procedures for stewards to control and minimize waste of water

As part of their sustainability policy, The Lime Tree Café works with local organic certified farmers for some of their vegetables in the United Arab Emirates. And since 2006 only Organic & Fair Trade tea and coffee can be found at their venues. Fair-trade ensures that the farmers who grow these products are paid a fair wage. Both of the tea and coffee suppliers support communities and charities in Ethiopia and Sri Lanka.

Sustainability goes further for The Lime Tree, and therefore they encourage their customers to order larger quantities, less often, whenever possible, to reduce the number of deliveries. The café also ensures that customers and suppliers are aligned with their values & practices, on both ethics and sustainability. Such as the Coffee BYO Cup discount initiative - where customers are encouraged and educated to eliminate single use disposables, by bringing their own cup for takeaway beverages. In order to achieve this, alls staff are aware of the policies and know how to communicate these to the customers and there are in-store signage implemented in all cafes, explaining sustainability and educating customers on environmental policies.

Locations:

Jumeirah 1, sheikh zayed road, al quoz

The springs souk, ibn battuta gate

Depachika, Nakheel Mall & Trampo Extreme

Waitrose Community Mall - Motor City

Phone: +971 4325 6235

Email: info@limetreecafe.ae

Website: The Lime Tree Cafe

Instagram: @limetreecafedubai

Pictures:

Main photo: UK Trip

Other photos: The Lime Tree Cafe