Abstract Greenhouse gas emissions have been recognized as one of the major cause of the global warming phenomena. The built environment accounts for more than 40% of the overall energy consumption and 36% of the overall CO2 emissions in Europe. Recent studies show that housing is one of the most responsible sector for world ecological impacts. The European Parliament developed the concept of Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB), characterized by a very low energy demand and a high renewable energy on-site production. In fact, energy efficiency is the first step towards the ambitious aim to reduce of 80% by 2050 the EU carbon emissions. The zero-energy building target is an achievable goal, which relies on a careful design that encompasses a synergy between passive and low-energy strategies. However, considering the whole life cycle of buildings, NZEBs reduce the operational energy close to zero, increasing the relevancy of the embodied energy, which occurs during the construction phase. Balancing the values of the operational and embodied energy is necessary to minimize buildings footprint on the environment. In this paper the renovation and re-use of the Atika building, a demonstrative energy-efficient building, is presented as case study of an environmental efficient methodology for energy retrofitting. The case relies on the methodology developed by Active House, a holistic vision for sustainable buildings labeling.