Efficient use of energy has become an imperative in the modern world, mainly for the reasons associated with environmental pollution, sustainable development, security of energy supply and global geo-political stability. Having in mind that the building sector is responsible for 40% of the European Union's total energy consumption, every improvement made in order to improve building energy performance is deemed largely beneficial. Serbia has invested in extensive national energy-efficiency program with an aim to enable refurbishment of 62 public buildings, namely schools, health care and social care institutions. Approach used in order to identify the cost optimal improvement of each building was developed in line with EU recommendations and was proven trustful in terms of results and final project outcome. Measurement conducted in order to verify energy savings achieved confirmed that annual gross final energy consumption was reduced by 47%, thereby enabling related carbon footprint to be reduced by 5.038 tCO(2)/a in total. Project-specific financial indicators have shown that energy savings achieved resulted in acceptable payback period for the investments made, equalling approximately 13 years in average. This is considered acceptable having in mind poor initial condition of the facilities refurbished and low price of locally available and commonly used coal. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.