Green Elixer

Elixer Coffee Solutions is in the Arizona Daily Star. They are featured as an ecological friendly company, doing several things to consume less.

At Elixer Coffee Solutions, the java comes with a bit of environmental consciousness.

Organic coffee is served in recyclable cups, and it comes from a roaster that promotes coffee produced through sustainable means. Elixer’s coffee grounds end up in the compost piles of Tucson gardeners.

These are small steps that owner Renee Wold has taken to spread the message that green is good.
Wold said she and her partner, Charlie Panipinto, are working to run an ecologically responsible business in front of a Fry’s Food and Drug store in Oro Valley.

“We obviously try to create a product that’s good for the people and good for the people who farm it and good for the environment,” Wold said.

She and Panipinto have gradually adopted green business practices since launching the outdoor café from the back of a restored 1952 Studebaker pickup truck four years ago.

“We chose this platform because it is less of a carbon footprint,” Wold said. “It’s not an inside building, we’re not heating it and we’re not air-conditioning it.”

Although running an ecologically minded café is more costly, Wold said her coffee prices remain competitive.

“In the long run, your investment pays off,” she said. “It does take time, a lot of research. For us, it’s been slow going, because we have to find out how accessible things are.

“A lot of these products are not carried in Arizona, so we have to have them shipped to us. So you pay a lot and worry about all the carbon emissions you’re putting out just to get it to you: Is it really going to pay off in the long run?”

She has had to learn to set realistic goals, Wold said, which can be difficult when one is eager to make big changes.

“We’re a very small micro-business, but we can make a huge difference just in terms of how we do things,” said Wold, adding that she hopes her customers might be inspired to do their share for the planet.

Gary Mendez said he stops in for coffee at Elixer about five times a week.

Mendez, a chiropractor, said he admires the couple’s green business practices.

“I started going there for the product, which is very good,” he said of the coffee.

Over time, he and his wife, Celina, have become friendly with Wold and Panipinto. The two drop in for coffee and conversation on Saturday mornings. They exchange ideas about things that are good for the environment, such as recycling garbage at home.
Panipinto said he and Wold value customers’ input and they look to them for ideas they can use at the café.

Going green requires persistence, Panipinto said.

“It took several phone calls before I could find someone to take the coffee grounds,” he recalled.

That someone is Bob Schlanger, vice president of the Jefferson Park Neighborhood Association in Midtown.

Schlanger and friend Panipinto made arrangements for several neighborhood residents to pick up the coffee grounds at Elixer each week, Schlanger said.

As more coffee grounds become available, Schlanger said, he plans to alert other residents through his neighborhood newsletter.
“A lot of people garden and they have compost piles, so the coffee grounds are great for that,” he said. “We do try to make use of stuff rather than throw it away.”

As the owner of British Car Service on Tucson’s North Side, Schlanger said he knows the massive amount of product packaging and other trash that businesses can generate.

“If everybody did just a little bit, it would make a big difference,” he said.

Elixer Coffee Solutions
Located On North Patio Of Fry’s – Rooney Ranch Center
10661 N Oracle Road (First Ave And Oracle Road)
Oro Valley, Arizona