Philosophy
We work everyday to make footprint as small as possible.
Our focus in this regard can be summarized quite easily:
Work with the seasons
Work as low-waste as possible
Source organic
Buy locally
Stay connected to our region, Rogaland
Run an independent and transparent management
Keep educating ourselves to always improve
Share our enthusiasm and workings with our guests
Organic, we belive that to feed an entire planet in the future we have to use farming methods that does not destroy the soil, waters, forests and oceans. Buying, using and eating organic also has the added benefit of not consuming pesticides and other chemicals.
Rogaland, we love to showcase the amazing produce and producers in our local area. And let availability rule the menu. Under “menu” you can see all the local producers we work with.
Garden, in Hillevåg we are starting to use our garden more and more for K2. Our goal here is to connect our staff to nature. The rule is “whatever is edible, and are not eaten by the family privately, will be used at K2”
Apprentices, since our first opening year we have had apprentices at K2. Our goal is to every year educate future chefs with our values.
Wine, all wines are personally selected by Elisabeth to fit our core values.
Staff, a quite flat management structure and transparent leadership has proven to make a tight crew that share many of our values and wishes to serve great food and drinks.
Our goal is that every person who works at K2 will feel like the time here was valuable.
Benefits our staff has:
- 4 day work week
- 5 weeks paid break each year. Every staff that has worked at K2 more than 1year gets one extra paid week annually.
- Tip split between full time staff, owners do not get tips
- Hot staff food every day at 3.30pm with quality produce
- Two staff parties every year paid for by K2
- All apprentices get to stage on their second year with pay. We also pay for airfare. Previous years our apprentices has been to Gastrologik Sweden (Danas), Hotshop Oslo (Alan), and Kvitnes Gård Norway (Anton)
- Apprentices at K2 get to compete in apprenticeship competition if they want to. Head chef Ola will then be the team leader. We have competed in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025. In 2025 our apprentices won (Janet Tverback and Lisa Kyllingstad)
- When we have time we like to go abroad to collaborate with other restaurants. In the past we have been at Kvitnes Gård Vesterålen, Mon Oncle Oslo, Holmen Lofoten, Hotel H3 Montreal, Boen Gård Tveit, Star Wine list Oslo. On these trips we invite different staff to go.
- Michelin event. Every year we go to the Michelin event, we always bring different staff on these trips. 2023 Ola Klepp and Elisabeth Kress 2024 Daniel Paganini and Ola Klepp 2025 Ola and Cesar Garduno
- Eirik (chef and barmanager) was at Dersou in Paris for two weeks in March 2023 with pay. K2 also paid for airfare
- Ola (head chef) was at Silo in London for a small week in 2023. K2 paid for airfare and hotel
- Elias (waiter) took WSETL2 at KA, Oslo February 2023. K2 paid for the course and paid leave
- Vilde (Sous chef at the time), Anton (apprentice at the time) was brought to Copenhagen March 2022 to eat at Noma together with Elisabeth and Ola. This as an extra thank you for a tough period summer 2021 regarding finding chefs to fill vacant positions.
- Apprentices Janet and Lisa got a paid meal at Renna (***) as a reward for winning apprenticeship championship in October 2025
Menu, a set menu reduced the amount of food waste but also prep time and gives us a clearer focus to work with.
Cleaning, we believe that by using organic and lighter soaps and detergents as well as almost no strong chemicals we minimize the strain we put on nature.
Care, we have systems and routines at K2 to ensure that our equipment will last as long as possible. The glasses we use are thicker, made for restaurant use, so they dont break so easily. We handwash and oil all wood. All staff is trained in care, and this is something we talk about daily.
Tableware and furniture, at K2 every piece of furniture is purchased to last, easy to maintain and fit our overall look. Every piece is bought from Scandinavian companies.
Sourcing, a set of three very simple guidelines rule our sourcing;
If it is produced in Rogaland we can use it.
If we buy a Norwegian(!) product from outside Rogaland we have to justify that the product is special and can not be sourced inside Rogaland. Example; Organic, especially good or geographically unique.
Everything sourced from outside of Norway has to be organically certified. With an exception for wine where around 70% is certified.
Meat, for our menu is only sourced from five different farms that we know personally and have visited.
Seafood, we only use wild bi-catch from our local banks outside “Jæren” so the seafood on our menu varies very often. When in season we use arctic cod “Skrei” from Lofoten and some smoked salmon from a family run smokehouse just next to the restaurant.
Preserving, a major part of our working year. To be able to serve fruit, berries and all the vegetables we like during the cold months we source and conserve during summer. Pickling, fermenting, drying, salting, and preserving in vinegar or alcohol makes it possible to serve local produce all year. Our winter menu is built around these gems from summer.
Revision, every year we have a revision to ensure we are working towards our goal. There are three main categories in this revision. 1. What have we started doing 2. What have we stopped doing 3. What goals de we have for the upcoming year and longterm
To prove that we can back up our claims, once a year we invite third party revision to go over our organic %, over 50% since opening (in everything, not just food)
We also pay Food made good annually to revise us (first year 2024)
Beer, we are spoilt in Rogaland with breweries like Lervig, Rygr, Yeastside and Jåttå Gårdsbryggeri, so 90% of our beer is local.
Charity, we donate to charity when we can. We have in the past donated cash (20.000nok to doctors beyond borders and Palestinakomiteen), we have also donated away meals at K2
Drinks, at K2 drinks is a big part of the full experience. Our chefs builds the drinks in the same way as we build our menu. We also pride ourselves in always offering a full non alcoholic experience based on local ingredients in season.
Water, we only offer tap water as it is of superior quality and there is no need to bottle it.
Waste, a large part of the K2 experience is to get to know how big a part of the menu as actually made from bi-products, unwanted ingredients and parts that are generally thought of a “waste”
Since opening in 2020 we have reduced the amount of food waste per week by 80% and our general waste by 65%.
On top of that we are in 2023 staring a very ambitious project to minimize the use of single-use plastic, start composting in our garden in Hillevåg.
We are also working on reusing/recycling paper waste in a for now “secret project”
Our goals for 2025
-Send Ola and Daniel to MAD symposium in Copenhagen
-Be profitable, did not succeed in 2024, so have implemented changes for 2025
-Focus even more on creating a winelist that fits our core values and style. We won most sustainable wine list in Star wine list 2025
-Arrange “How to run a sustainable restaurant” pilot project
Our goals for 2024
- Start a sustainability program for chefs to attend
- Be profitable (was not profitable in 2024)
- Send our apprentice on a stage before August (Hotshop May 2024)
- Arrange for two pop ups at K2 with restaurants who share our core values
Our goals for 2023
- Drastically reduce single-use plastic (was not successful removing gloves and cling film)
- No more bags in “organic” waste
- Replace candles with chargeable table lamps
- Exchange table tops, so we do not have to use table cloths
- Be profitable in 2023
- By the end of 2023 only purchase Norwegian liqour (only exception is Sake, which we cant find locally)
- Get in a third party to revise our sustainability practices, and what areas to improve. Debio and 360 eat guide did it in 2023.
