Happy New Year guys - and what a Happy one it’s going to be! It’s starting super well, with the news that from this month, all restaurants and hotels in Dubai must offer the option of filtered water to guests - in a bid to start cutting down on the amount of plastic water bottles in our city.
When we opened our third home at BurJuman City Centre in October, we cut the use of plastic water bottles entirely - offering only beautiful filtered water from the guys at Liquid of Life, which we serve in glass carafes. The uptake has been phenomenal and you guys, our amazing customers, absolutely love the fact that we’ve gotten rid of plastic. With this in mind, we’re going to be rolling out this same initiative in our other two spots, in Downtown Dubai and DAFZA this year - and this is only the start of our green efforts for 2020.
After a year that saw the Amazon Rainforest burn amongst so many other awful eco-focused headlines, the environment is absolutely at the top of our agenda - more so than ever before. Here’s what else we’ll be doing this year to ensure we’re being as eco-friendly as we can be:
First up, we’re introducing Compostable Packaging. By the end of this month, 72% of all of our delivery packaging will be made out of cornstarch and therefore will be fully compostable, further reducing the amount of plastic we use in our operations. We aim to increase this % figure before the end of the year. You may notice a slight increase in the price of our delivery meals as a result - by just 1 or 2AED. If you do, please know that you are hugely aiding our sustainability efforts!
Expanding our Market List of Organic Vegetables. We already have an extensive organic veggie list thanks to the amazing folks at Greenheart Organic Farms, but have just added three beautiful new vegetables for 2020 - including insanely fragrant coriander, the freshest green beans and vibrant mint - and will be adding to this list throughout the coming months with the aim of offering only organic produce.
Cans >>> Bottles. Another key focus for us this year is to switch from cans to glass bottles for all of our sodas since glass is much more environmentally friendly and can be fully recycled. Watch this space.
Paper napkins. We also have plans to replace our current napkins with recycled ones.
Essentially, our overall aim for 2020 is to continue to source the best and freshest ingredients in order to continue to serve you guys the most delicious Asian food at a reasonable price - all the while ensuring that we're doing everything we can to continue to be as sustainable as possible.
That's our mission statement for 2020. What's yours?