Sport Needs a Healthy Planet. Here’s What We’re Doing About It.

At DICK’S Sporting Goods, our mission is to serve and inspire athletes. But athletes need fields to play on, trails to run, and clean air to breathe. Protecting the future of sport means protecting the planet where sport happens. We believe it’s time for retailers like us to lead.

By Lauren Hobart

President & CEO, DICK’S Sporting Goods

Retailers sit at the center of the modern sporting goods ecosystem. We influence what products are made, how they are sourced, and how long they stay in use. That means we also have a responsibility to help shape how this industry responds to one of the defining challenges of our time: building a future where sport can thrive on a healthy planet.

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past several years thinking about what it means to be a retailer with a mission. DICK’S Sporting Goods is a company that genuinely believes sport makes people’s lives better. That belief shapes everything we do: how we invest in communities, how we serve our athletes, and increasingly, how we think about the planet those athletes live on.

The connection between sport and the environment isn’t abstract. The fields, trails, mountains, and courts that define athletic life are not separate from the world around them. If we’re truly serious about serving athletes, then we have to be serious about the conditions that make sport possible in the first place.

That’s why sustainability isn’t a side initiative at DICK’S. It’s part of our responsibility as a company that touches the lives of millions of athletes every year.

Setting a Bar and Holding Ourselves to It

Six years ago, we made a public commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across our company operations by 30% by 2030. That kind of commitment means something only if you’re willing to be held accountable to it, and we are. We believe that addressing climate change requires collective action across industries, and because of that, we signed the ‘We Are Still In’ declaration in 2020 in support of the Paris Climate Agreement and joined the Outdoor Industry Climate Action Corps. 

We’ve also taken steps to reduce waste in our own operations. Eliminating single-use plastic bags across all of our stores is one example. Another is the launch of Sports Matter reusable bags that will be available very soon. These are both tangible, visible changes that reflect a broader mindset shift in how we think about the footprint of retail. These are operational decisions that require real commitment to follow through on, and I am proud of the team that has driven them forward.

Accountability Starts in the Supply Chain

One of the most important places a retailer can influence sustainability outcomes is upstream, in the supply chain, before a product ever reaches a store shelf. We’ve been working to bring greater transparency and accountability to that process.

Through the SAC Higg Facility Environmental Module, we’re working toward 100% participation from our vertical brands and Tier 1 suppliers, giving us a clearer picture of the environmental impact across our product ecosystem. We’ve committed to meeting the minimum disclosure standards of the Human Rights Watch Transparency Pledge for 100% of our vertical brands, because supply chain accountability is both an environmental issue and a human one.

We’ve also focused on making our product choices more transparent for consumers: prioritizing and clearly labeling products with organic content, recycled content, or preferred fibers, and displaying certifications from Fair Trade, bluesign, and the Leather Working Group where applicable. We want the athletes shopping with us to be able to make informed choices. That means doing the work to give them that information.

Bringing the Circular Economy to Sport

Perhaps the initiative I’m most proud of in recent years is the work we’ve done to build a genuine recommerce model for sporting goods. Gear gets outgrown, seasons change, and sports switch. For too long, that meant equipment collecting dust in garages or ending up in landfills. We decided to do something about it.

Our ongoing partnership with SidelineSwap is one of the most concrete expressions of our sustainability commitments. In 2024 alone, we hosted more than 300 trade-in events at DICK’S locations across the country, giving athletes the ability to drop off their used gear and receive store credit in return. SidelineSwap’s platform has helped more than two million athletes resell more than $250 million worth of used sports gear, keeping an estimated 180,000 pounds of equipment out of landfills every year.

Most recently, we launched a nationwide trade-in program specifically for baseball and softball bats, available at all 850-plus DICK’S locations. It’s a small program in the context of our full business, but it reflects a belief we hold deeply: that retail can be part of a circular economy, not just a linear one. Equipment should find its way to another athlete, not to a landfill. We intend to expand this model to additional categories in the years ahead.

Sport and Sustainability Are the Same Mission

I want to be honest about where we are. We’ve made meaningful progress, and I’m genuinely proud of what our team has built. But we also know the work ahead is significant. The structural challenges of sustainability in retail include supply chain emissions, material sourcing, and end-of-life product management. Addressing them requires long-term commitment and industry-wide collaboration. We’re not going to solve all of it quickly, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.

What I am confident in is this: at DICK’S, sustainability and our athlete mission are not in tension. They are the same mission. An athlete who grows up connected to sport grows up connected to the outdoors, to their community, to a healthier way of living. Protecting the environment that makes all of that possible is the logical extension of everything we believe.

We have more than 50,000 teammates across this company who come to work every day genuinely committed to serving athletes and their communities. I am incredibly proud of this team, and I believe that same energy, drive, and purpose is exactly what we need to take on this challenge. The opportunity to lead is significant, and we’re not stepping back from it.