Before We Play the Game, We Have to Protect the Field.

By Lauren Hobart, President and CEO, DICK’S Sporting Goods

Every athlete knows what it feels like to step onto a field for the first time. You can imagine the smell of fresh-cut grass, the sound of being outside, and the nervous energy of a starting line. These moments shape who we are. They teach us discipline, resilience, teamwork, and what it means to push past what we thought we could do. At DICK’S Sporting Goods, we have spent nearly 80 years equipping athletes for those moments. However, these days, It’s important to think beyond what athletes wear on the field and focus on whether the field itself will still be there for generations.

Environmental issues are more than an abstract policy debate for a sporting goods companies because for us, they are an operational reality. Extreme weather events are destroying parks, fields, and recreational infrastructure in communities that were already underserved. Coastal erosion is swallowing the beaches where kids learn to surf and the waterways where families kayak and fish. For a company whose entire purpose is to inspire and equip athletes, we have a part to play in this environmental crisis.

That is why DICK’S has taken a strong stance on sustainability as a business imperative rooted in who we are. In 2020, we committed to eliminating all single-use plastic bags from our stores by 2025. We joined the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag alongside CVS, Target, and Walmart because we believed that the sporting goods industry should be leading on this issue. Especially since we acquired Foot Locker, we have realized that our reach keeps growing. Our customers are the people who hike national parks, fish in rivers, and coach Little League on fields surrounded by trees. They do not want to see our bags in landfills or tangled in the waterways where their kids play.

We also signed the “We Are Still In” declaration in support of the Paris Climate Agreement and set a company-wide goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% across our operations by 2030. We joined the Sustainable Apparel Coalition to hold ourselves accountable on how our products are made, and we partnered with SidelineSwap to create a takeback program that keeps used gear out of landfills and puts it back in the hands of athletes who need it. We have redesigned packaging across our vertical brands to use less material and more recycled content.

The private sector alone cannot solve the climate crisis. However, we can stop being bystanders and pretending it is someone else’s responsibility. Every retailer that operates hundreds of stores, manages a supply chain, and ships millions of packages a year has a footprint. The question is whether you are willing to look at it clearly and commit to making it smaller. At DICK’S, we have chosen to look.

This summer, DICK’S and Foot Locker are launching “Find Your Sole,” a campaign built on the belief that self-expression starts from the ground up. We are inviting a generation to step into the legacy of athletes who refused to conform and to discover who they are through sport, music, and culture. But we cannot ask young people to find their sole if we are not doing our part to protect the ground they stand on. What is underneath matters. And if we are going to ask the next generation to build something meaningful from the ground up, we have a responsibility to make sure the ground is still there.

If you have any questions about our efforts, please visit https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/s/faq/help-desk to talk to a trusted employee. We would love to hear any questions, concerns, or recommendations our customers have.

As a company, we are trying our hardest to take the steps forward to make an impact. We believe the places where athletes play are worth fighting for. We will keep showing up for that fight, one field, one community, and one less plastic bag at a time.

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STRATEGY NOTE:

This thought-leadership piece positions DICK’S Sporting Goods CEO Lauren Hobart as a credible and passionate voice on environmental sustainability by framing the issue through a lens unique to the brand of protecting the physical environments where athletes play. Rather than relying on corporate jargon or generic sustainability pledges, the piece grounds every initiative in the athlete experience, which is the emotional core of the DICK’S brand identity. The choice of USA Today as the target publication reflects the brand’s broad consumer base and positions the piece for maximum reach across demographics. The confident, first-person tone avoids the performative quality that often undermines corporate sustainability messaging and instead reads as a genuine perspective from a CEO who connects their environmental pledge directly to the company’s purpose. The piece cites specific, verifiable initiatives to establish credibility while maintaining the accessible, conversational register that USA Today readers expect.

References

1. Anthropic. (2025). Claude (claude-sonnet-4-6) [Large language model]. https://www.anthropic.com. Used to research and identify DICK’S Sporting Goods’ most relevant environmental and sustainability initiatives to support the op-ed’s central argument.
2. DICK’S Sporting Goods Investor Relations, “About Us.” https://investors.dicks.com/about-us/default.aspx
3. DICK’S Sporting Goods Press Release, “Takes Action To Create A Future Free Of Single-use Plastic Bags,” Sept. 29, 2020. https://investors.dicks.com/news/news-details/2020/DICKS-Sporting-Goods-Takes-Action-To-Create-A-Future-Free-Of-Single-use-Plastic-Bags/default.aspx
4. Chain Store Age, “Dick’s Sporting Goods details environmental, social goals,” 2021. https://chainstoreage.com/dicks-sporting-goods-details-environmental-social-goals
5. SGB Media Online, “Dick’s Sporting Goods Releases 2020 Purpose Playbook.” https://sgbonline.com/dicks-sporting-goods-2020-purpose-playbook/
6. We Are Still In, “DICK’S Sporting Goods Climate Action Contribution.” https://www.wearestillin.com/organization/dicks-sporting-goods
7. EcoEnclose, “DICK’S Sporting Goods Sustainable Packaging Guide.” https://www.ecoenclose.com/resources/retailer-guide/dicks
8. DICK’S Sporting Goods & SidelineSwap Press Release, “Expand Resale Partnership in 2024,” April 16, 2024. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240416779412/en/
9. Bicycle Retailer, “Dick’s establishes new goals for DEI, sustainability,” Aug. 3, 2021. https://www.bicycleretailer.com/industry-news/2021/08/03/dicks-establishes-new-goals-dei-sustainability