Methodologically, it separates Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) from sustainability, seeing the latter as a global and systemic approach whose definition is not given by a single entity but by international institutions.

[1] Standard Ethics promotes sustainability and corporate governance with the Standard Ethics Rating, an evaluation of how well companies and sovereign nations respond to corporate governance and sustainability, as indicated by guidelines published by the United Nations, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the European Union.

Conversely, under the investor-pay model, agencies charge investors a fee for a list of companies that warrant investment.

[2][3] The Standard Ethics Rating (SER) is a Solicited Sustainability Rating (SSR) evaluating how well companies and sovereign nations comply with the sustainability and corporate governance guidelines published by the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the European Union (EU).

Standard Ethics links the rating to an evaluation done both at a qualitative and quantitative level of the potential reputational risks for a company.