Celebrating Women in Logistics: Jicara Gorski’s Journey
by Jaidyn Farar
We're thrilled to have you join us for the third article of our Women’s History Month blog series! These articles are all about the phenomenal women making waves in logistics. Today we’ll get to know Jicara Gorski, guest on the 11th episode of the Unboxing Logistics podcast.
Since Jicara’s podcast insights focus on sustainability, we thought we’d kick things off by talking about the role women play in global sustainability initiatives.
Women and sustainability
According to a Harvard Business Review article, women across the world are disproportionately affected by climate issues, including natural disasters and pollution. The article goes on to say, “The good news is, while women are especially vulnerable in this climate crisis, they are also uniquely positioned to act as powerful agents of change.”
That fact is reflected in the number of women holding sustainability-focused leadership positions. One study found that in 2011, 72% of chief sustainability officer (CSO) roles were held by men. By 2021, over half (54%) of CSO roles were held by women.
During those 10 years, the number of women in other sustainability roles, including vice president, director, and manager, also increased by around 20%.
Pretty cool, right?
Meet Jicara Gorski
Jicara Gorski has over 11 years of experience in the transportation and logistics industry, during which time she’s worked in product management, product development, and UX. Currently, Jicara is a principal product manager at EasyPost, where her team focuses on the shipping solution vertical.
Jicara’s insights on carbon-neutral shipping
In her episode, Jicara talks about EasyPost’s carbon-neutral shipping initiative, which ensures that every shipment processed through the Shipping API has a net neutral carbon impact.
EasyPost’s carbon offsetting
How did the carbon offset program come to be? Jicara explains, “We have been able to allow customers to calculate their carbon offsets … for about a year now. After piloting that program and realizing that there is a much stronger expectation for companies to take part in their responsibility, we realized that we'd been sitting on our hands not offering this to all of our customers.”
“We'll simply be rolling this out for every customer who purchases a shipping label through either our shipping API or our UI label creation tool. Carbon offsets [will be calculated], and we will include them in the purchase of labels at no cost to [shippers]. And we will purchase projects for decarbonization efforts around the world.”
Why focus on sustainability?
As Jicara points out, carbon-neutral shipping “is not a light investment.” So why did her team (and EasyPost as a whole) push the project forward?
The goal was to help shippers boost their sustainability efforts without needing to spend more.
“We wanted to remove any concern for cost. … This is an effort in our continuing partnership with our customers: listening to them, understanding what their end customers are expecting, and coming to the table with a viable solution.”
How does carbon offsetting work?
The carbon offsetting process is pretty straightforward! Jicara explains that every shipment uses a specific mode of transportation (usually ground or air) and travels a certain distance. Using those inputs, EasyPost “calculates the amount of carbon emissions that are associated with a particular parcel.”
Then, “we purchase a commensurate decarbonization project to offset those emissions. Customers will have the ability to see the emissions that are associated with each of their parcels … and see the offsets purchased.”
You can learn more about carbon offsets in Jicara’s podcast episode.
Enjoying this series?
Although International Women’s Day has passed, it’s still Women’s History Month. That means it’s the perfect time to take inspiration from this blog series and recognize the contributions of the talented women you work with. What are you waiting for?