There’s yet another reason to love the Mazda CX-5’s nose: it’s environmentally-friendly. The Japanese carmaker has recently announced a breakthrough in using bio-engineered plastic for large exterior parts and will subsequently use this technology beginning with the CX-5’s front grille.

By switching to this plant-based material, Mazda is able to reduce its dependency on petroleum-based raw materials as well as carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Unique to Mazda’s application, the bio-engineered plastic enables them to produce parts with a deep hue and mirror-like smoothness without the need for paint, reducing harmful Volatile Organic Compounds or VOC. In addition, Mazda has tweaked the material composition and molding specifications allowing them to use it on large-sized parts with complicated shapes such as grilles.

This isn’t the first time Mazda has used bio-engineered materials They’ve used it in the interior trim of the MX-5 before applying it also to the CX-9, Mazda3, and Mazda2. However, this is the first time they’re going to use it on large exterior plastics.