Sustainability in Tech Awards: Q&A with Meera Ramanathan, Global Sustainability and CSR Director, Fortinet

Meera Ramanathan is an experienced sustainability professional with over 15 years in corporate sustainability. Having worked at tech companies like Meta and Adobe, she currently serves as the Global Director of Sustainability and CSR at Fortinet. In this role, she leads strategic sustainability and CSR programmes, renewable energy initiatives, and ESG reporting. Meera is deeply passionate about making a positive impact and ensuring a better, more sustainable future for generations to come.

Why do you think awards like the Sustainability in Tech Awards matter? What would winning this award mean to your company?

Sustainability is an ongoing journey, and awards like the CRN Sustainability in Tech Awards help recognise progress, share best practices, and inspire further action. They provide an opportunity for companies to share lessons learned and reinforce the importance of responsible business strategies.

For Fortinet, winning this award would be an honour and a reflection of our ongoing commitment to responsible innovation, energy-efficient cybersecurity solutions, sustainable operations, and circular economy initiatives.

What would you say is your company’s proudest achievement over the past year?

In 2024, we advanced our environmental sustainability strategy through concrete actions, including establishing our decarbonisation plan, achieving SBTi validation for our near-term GHG emission reduction targets, and expanding initiatives to reduce e-waste, such as our new hardware donation programme. We also took steps to make our packaging more eco-friendly, and further developed energy-efficient cybersecurity solutions.

Raising awareness across our organisation has been another important focus. We’ve introduced new educational modules and environmental awareness campaigns to engage employees, trained our R&D teams on circularity to encourage sustainable innovation, and embedded sustainability into our events, particularly in the EMEA region. What inspires us most is seeing our employees embrace sustainability, bring forward new ideas, and push us to keep improving. We remain deeply committed to making further progress together.

What have been the biggest challenges of 2025 so far, and how have you overcome them? How have your people helped with that?

One of the biggest challenges this year is keeping up with the evolving sustainability reporting landscape, regulations, and stakeholders’ expectations.

With the introduction of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) in Europe, and the emergence of other regional and national requirements around the world, meeting these expanding requirements while ensuring transparency and accuracy requires significant efforts. Our CSR champions and CSR team are instrumental in tackling this challenge, by enhancing data collection, and streamlining reporting processes. This collaboration is key in helping us meet these new expectations, while continuing to drive impactful initiatives.

How do you think the channel has changed over the past year and what changes do you think it still needs to make?

Over the past year, sustainability has become a growing priority for the channel, with more partners recognising its importance—not just as a compliance requirement but as an opportunity to deliver value to customers. Many are looking for ways to support their customers’ sustainability goals, whether through energy-efficient solutions, responsible supply chain practices, or cybersecurity measures that enhance resilience.

That said, there is still room for growth, particularly in equipping partners with the right knowledge and tools to confidently discuss sustainability with customers. Cybersecurity plays a crucial role in building a more resilient and sustainable digital future, and we aim to support our partners in highlighting this connection.

What do you see as the main opportunities for the channel in the coming year? How do you plan to capitalize on those opportunities?

As organisations accelerate digital transformation, they are looking for solutions that are not only secure but also energy-efficient and responsibly designed. This presents an unique opportunity for the channel to differentiate itself by offering cybersecurity solutions that align with sustainability goals.

This year, we plan to further engage with our partners by working together on sustainability-driven initiatives. By collaborating closely, we can create long-term value for customers while advancing both security and sustainability goals.