DICK’S Sporting Goods – Chinedu Nsude – 2025

Summary

Chinedu Nsude joined Dick’s Sporting Goods, where he analyzed environmental performance of over 200 supplier facilities using Higg FEM data. With detailed analysis and strategic recommendations, the project has laid a foundation for improved targeted environmental interventions, and long-term supplier engagement.

Goals

During the Climate Corps fellowship, Chinedu assessed Dick’s Sporting Goods (DSG) environmental performance across its global supply chain using Higg Facility Environmental Module (FEM) data. This project is aimed to strengthen DSG’s understanding of its environmental performance across its suppliers and to uncover actionable insights, identify environmental risks, and recommend strategic enhancements to support DSG’s sustainability goals.

Solutions

Chinedu approached the project using a four-part process.
-Benchmarking Industry Practices: Prior to deep analysis, Chinedu conducted a peer benchmarking exercise to understand how leading brands and retailers manage, analyze, and derive value from Higg FEM data.
-Operational Data Scoping and Validation: Chinedu worked with a dataset of all verified and self-assessed facilities attributed to DSG on the Worldly platform, cleaning and synthesizing the data to ensure consistency and accuracy across records.
-Category-Level Analysis and Reporting: In this core process, Chinedu analyzed performance across key impact categories: Environmental Management Systems (EMS), Energy, Water, Wastewater, Waste, Air Emissions, and Chemicals. Each category was assessed for score distribution, and supplier-level contributions, with special focus on energy, water, waste, renewable energy adoption, and regional performance patterns.
-Recommendation and Strategic Impacts: Based on findings, Chinedu developed actionable recommendations tailored to DSG’s level of influence, and where feasible, timelines were suggested to guide phased implementation and progress tracking.

Potential Impact

This project provided Dick’s Sporting Goods (DSG) with a clearer view of its environmental performance across global supplier facilities. The insights generated from verification rates and environmental performance modules, equip DSG with actionable intelligence to guide sustainability goal setting, supplier engagement, and ESG reporting. Additionally, this work strengthens DSG’s ability to benchmark performance, identify priority areas for improvement, and align with the industry’s best practices.