Based on the regulation of the Government of the Republic of Indonesia No. 102 of 2000 dated 10 November 2000 regarding National Standardization, what is meant by standard is a technical specification or something that is standardized including procedure and method composed on the basis of a consensus of all stakeholders/relevant parties by considering safety, security, health, environmental requirements as well as development in science and technology, experience, current and future developments in order to gain the optimum benefit. While standardization is a process of formulating, determining, applying and revising standard, this is conducted in a good order and by cooperating with all relevant parties.

The standardization activity conducted by SDI is an activity to formulate, determine, and apply sustainable development standard, which includes criteria and indicator from the respective aspects of sustainability, namely economy, social and environment, including its procedure and method. The formulated standard is adjusted to the international standard of sustainable development, by taking into account that sustainable development can not be seen merely for a national scale; it should be seen from a global scale.

The above Government Regulation also explains about Certification as a series of activities of issuing certificates for goods and services. While certificate is a written warranty provided by an accredited agency/laboratory in order to represent/state that a good, service, process, system or personnel has met the required standard.

The certification activity in SDI in a series of activities of issuing certificate for products produced from activities that meet the standard of sustainable development. The series of activities referred to as above are, among others, assessment, which is done on the basis of criteria and indicators of SDI standards, which are referred to in verifier, and applies the procedure and method that have been standardized, by prioritizing a scientific, objective, transparent, inclusive/participatory and balanced/fair approach, as well as referring to international standard, yet taking into consideration local condition.