Europe is facing one of its most challenging crises since Great Depression and the construction sector is one of the worst affected. Refurbishment is therefore often suggested as one of the most useful solutions for the current real estate crisis in consolidated areas like the EU. On the other hand, it is imperative to construct buildings according to sustainable principles regarding economic, environmental and social issues. Therefore, proper decision-support methods are needed to help designers, investors and policy makers to choose the most sustainable solution for a refurbishment project, especially for energy retrofit works. This paper reviews the works relating to sustainable refurbishment decision-support tools which have already been developed. For this purpose we have analysed and classified 40 different methods, with particular focus on their main common aims. They are also compared with other classifications proposed. This paper further highlights the role of energy as a driving factor and discusses what other research developments are needed to create related tools for the future that could respond to actual construction requirements. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.