Sustainability is big in tech. Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, there’s no question that the tech space has an outsized impact on our world’s resources, energy and emissions.
Generations of environmentally aware purchasing influencers climbing the ranks at corporations large and small, sustainability is becoming a factor—sometimes significantly—in technology sourcing. Selling solutions from sustainably focused vendors, which already move the needle on deals today, will become that much more influential over time.
Built-in Demand
Sustainability demand is already meaningful. A McKinsey advisory on sustainability demand details two essential takeaways for MSSPs:
- Sustainability demand is enormous and growing. McKinsey notes that “growing demand for net-zero offerings [across multiple value pools] could generate more than $12 trillion of annual sales” by 2030.
- Sustainability in B2B supplier pools is becoming increasingly important in purchasing decisions. McKinsey also notes that “suppliers in B2B value chains are facing increasingly stringent emissions-reductions requirements as more of their customers pursue net-zero strategies.”
Messaging Matters
Deals closing on sustainability fall into two categories. The first encompasses deals with companies that deliberately source from sustainable vendors (like those referenced in the McKinsey data). Sustainability-first sourcing can be driven by regulations, incentives, corporate fiat or culture. Even if deals hinging upon sustainability don’t dominate your networking and security decisions today, all signs point to much more significant deal influence in the future.
This gets us to the other ways in which sustainability can influence deals. It can be a secondary motivating factor that tilts a buyer in your direction or helps to push a purchase toward fruition.
In either case, messaging is essential. If you want to push sustainability heavily (e.g., because of the markets you serve or your own firm’s corporate values), prominently featuring products and services that are leading the charge should be part of your communications strategy. Alternatively, you can still benefit by including sustainability statements in your materials, even when they aren’t a focal point.
If you work with a robust, channel-focused supplier with strong sustainability initiatives, you can source some of that messaging from your channel team.
Download Fortinet’s New Sustainability Report
Of course, all of this assumes your MSSP is working with a sustainably focused vendor to begin with. Last year, Fortinet was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability World and North America Indices lists of top sustainable companies in the software industry. The company was also included in the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook 2023—the world’s most comprehensive publication on corporate sustainability.
To learn more, download Fortinet’s new sustainability report detailing corporate sustainability initiatives and milestones from 2022.