One of the core principles in the Natural Capitalism approach to sustainable management is to identify opportunities where the economy can substitute services for products. Here’s a good example of that approach from the Ventura County Star:

“Baby Plays subscribers visit the company’s Web site to browse among nearly 200 toys for newborns through preschoolers. Customers build a wish list of toys they’d like to rent, and Pope’s staff ships them to their door.”

What’s great about the BabyPlays.com business model is that it reduces the total consumption of toys while providing a more valuable experience to customers. It’s pretty cool that kids will have access to more variety in toys. Parents aren’t left with closets full of outgrown objects of amusement. These are objects that eventually find their way into landfill.

The BabyPlays model has the potential to significantly increase the life cycle of each toy, thereby lowering the impact of the baby toy sector. That subsector of consumer goods isn’t a popular target for environmentalists nor should it be. What’s nice is that BabyPlays has found a profitable way to accomplish positive environmental benefits in a market space with lower-than-average external environmental pressures.

BabyPlays.com is an efficiency and value play not an environmental play. It’s good to see this type of model in the market and as resource and disposal costs rise, expect to see more of it.

Perhaps next BabyPlays will research other ways to reduce internal inefficiencies and improve service value. Again the County Star:

“The toys are sanitized with Clorox wipes and loaded with fresh batteries before being shrink wrapped and boxed for shipment.”

Bleach is not a healthy product and name brand wipes don’t seem like an efficient solution. Would parents appreciate a recyclable battery program as part of the main offer? Also is shrink wrapping necessary to make parents feel like they’re getting a newish product?

UPDATE: Brad Stone gives a good run down of other innovative rental services for household stuff (NY Times Bits Blog).

[tags]BabyPlays.com, Natural Capitalism, products as services[/tags]