New Zealand, among other low-laying countries, is more prone to natural events that may amplify the need to preserve and conserve heritage buildings. Preserving and conserving historic buildings, structures, and locations involves all activities crucial to safeguarding the nation’s cultural legacy and shared cultural inheritance. These may include conducting restorative construction works for heritage buildings, in which technological advancements have enabled effective methods. Specifically, Historic Building Information Modelling (HBIM) provides digital tools to create models of existing historical buildings or structures. The known potentials of adopting such digital technology include the opportunities to enable retrofitting of buildings in an environmentally sustainable way. These tools, such as GIS, photogrammetry, laser scanners, and UAVs, can facilitate this process.This paper reviews relevant literature on HBIM tools and related case studies. This review forms a part of a PhD study that explores how HBIM tools can be used in buildings to better design sustainable retrofits and renovations in heritage buildings using a digital conservation approach. The results of this review offer a valuable guide for creating subsequent phases of the research towards enabling sustainable retrofitting of heritage buildings in New Zealand and beyond.