Cultural heritage represents a key driver of social identity, cultural continuity, and local economic development, yet it is increasingly exposed to environmental, anthropogenic, and climate-related threats. In this context, restoration and conservation interventions require selecting materials and techniques that ensure technical performance while addressing broader sustainability objectives. However, decision-making in cultural heritage restoration is often based on fragmented criteria, with limited integration of environmental, economic, and social dimensions across the entire life cycle. This study addresses this gap by developing a multi-criteria life-cycle framework to support the selection and prioritisation of sustainable restoration techniques in cultural heritage. The research adopts a systematic literature review (SLR) methodology to identify and analyse contributions on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Costing (LCC), and Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) within the heritage conservation domain. A final sample of 45 peer-reviewed articles was examined through descriptive and content analyses to extract relevant indicators, methodological approaches, and decision variables. The output is a structured multi-criteria life-cycle framework that integrates sustainability indicators across environmental, economic, and social dimensions, including, for example, Global Warming Potential (GWP), natural resource depletion, water footprint, equipment and energy costs, health and safety, employment stability, and community well-being. This set of indicators constitutes a coherent, multidimensional taxonomy that underpins a flexible, replicable decision-support framework, enabling transparent, systematic comparison of alternative restoration strategies. The study offers relevant implications for both practice and policy, supporting more informed resource allocation and the development of sustainability-oriented guidelines for cultural heritage conservation. The proposed framework is explicitly designed to provide a solid knowledge base for future empirical applications, making it an operational tool for decision-makers. By integrating multi-criteria decision-making techniques, it will be possible to weight the heterogeneous criteria identified and prioritise restoration interventions under conditions of uncertainty. Future developments should also focus on empirical validation through case studies and on incorporating stakeholder perspectives to enhance the framework’s applicability and robustness.