Amongst the challenges that the industry is faced with concerning green building is the matter of deciding what is or is not considered green. This is due to the fact that the use of green building techniques are voluntary and can be highly variable. In order to standardise green building practices and to provide a measure of efficiency of the techniques, different certification and assessment systems have been developed globally. Ultimately, green building rating tools serve as a mechanism to drive the adoption and uptake of green building. The aim of this research study was therefore to investigate the factors that may hinder the growth or use of these systems as well as what contributes to reluctance within the construction industry to pursue a rating.