Introduction

Sustainability has become a global commitment. Today, a company's success not relies on how much income it archives but relies on if it adapts sustainable practices to the business model. Toyota commits to a sustainability strategy according to internationally-agreed standards, like the Paris Agreement, the UN guiding principles and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  

Each industry has different environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues to focus on; the material ESG issues can have a significant impact on a company’s financial performance (Eccles & Serafeim, 2013). Toyota addresses some major ESG issues and accordingly, Toyota can innovate products, processes with its sustainability strategy. The principle of shared value is indispensable. Shared value is not about personal values but about maximizing the economic and social value. Toyota has been focusing on long-term success instead of short-term profits. To create shared value, Toyota reconceiving products and markets, redefines productivity in the value chain and enables local cluster development (Porter & Kramer, 2011).

The objective of the case study was to determine whether Toyota’s sustainability strategy could drive innovation. It has been divided into three major questions list as follows: 

●What material ESG issues did Toyota address?

●How did Toyota’s sustainability strategy  react to GRI guidelines?

●How did Toyota create shared value?