Climate-neutral energy conversion technologies require circular substitution materials. The development of new recyclable materials has to be based on sustainability and performance criteria defined by a holistic life cycle assessment. The implementation of intelligent green chemistry for synthesis and scalable production of these materials using secondary raw materials will be based on profound knowledge of the composition-structure-property relationship. An efficient circularity of the energy converters with a programmable lifetime will be presented as a suitable approach in this talk. The design of circular high-performance materials is based on theoretical predictions and criticality analysis of the applied elements to improve the lifetime of future energy converters such as batteries, fuel cells, electric motors, generators and solar cells.