Seeing the Forest

For Josephine Cooper '77, trying to reach consensus on environmental regulations affecting the U.S. forest and paper products industry is like being in the eye of a hurricane. All around her, issues and emotions swirl-over spotted owls, timber quotas, designation of wetlands and acceptable limits of dioxin. She knows where she wants to go, but in this slow-moving storm, the debate never seems to change and progress is glacial. Yet she continues to be drawn to the arena because of the challenge it presents and because she feels she can make a difference.

Cooper is vice president of Environment and Regulatory Affairs for the American Forest and Paper Association (AFPA) based in Washington, D.C. While some might assume that makes her by definition an opponent of the environmental movement, that would be far from accurate. In fact, the Raleigh native has spent the better part of 20 years trying to find ways in which business can operate in an environmentally acceptable fashion. Cooper started her career working for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Research Triangle Park. While at EPA, she enrolled in Fuqua's predecessor, the Duke Graduate School of Business Administration, receiving an MBA in 1977. "I wanted to expand my horizons and get a better understanding of the businesses that I was working to regulate," Cooper says. "My education worked wonders in that regard."

In 1979, Cooper accepted a staff position with Rep. Dick Cheney (R-Wyoming) in Washington as part of a one-year fellowship from EPA. Under Cheney, she came to embrace an environmental philosophy that she finds most often expressed by Republicans. "Basically, that environmental protection and economic improvement are not mutually exclusive," Cooper explains. "I honestly believe that you can have both."

Cooper stayed on the Hill through 1983, serving as Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker's staff representative on the Environment and Public Works Committee. In 1992, she was hired by AFPA. Her primary focus there has been on developing and analyzing regulations that affect the manufacturing side of the forest products industry. In this work, Cooper feels her training both in the environment and in business management gives her a valuable perspective on how regulations are formulated and implemented.

"I try to get people to understand that you can't create rules in a vacuum," Cooper says. "You have to look at the cost of regulation. My MBA helps me understand what all the pieces are, what kind of analysis is required and how to bring together data to clarify the real situation.

"Today, we've reached a point in environmental regulation where it costs a tremendous amount of money to achieve small increments of improvement," she observes. "I try to get people to understand what's at stake in gaining each increment of improvement.

Cooper's expertise and perspective are so valued that she has been asked to serve on the Board of Visitors of Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment. "We selected Jo for two reasons," says Dean Norman Christensen. "First, she is a Duke alumna who really cares about the School. Second, she has distinguished herself in this very important and contentious field. She understands the role of incentive and regulation as well as anyone. She represents the kind of approach we'd like the Nicholas School to take."

Christensen says that Cooper has been a key player in getting the AFPA to take a leadership role in developing sustainable forestry policies and issues related to environmentally sound paper utilization. Yet for all her skills, Cooper admits to frustration with the reluctance on both sides to accept anything that looks like a compromise. "The debate on environmental issues has become much more polarized in recent years," she says. "The most difficult part is bringing together those who would prefer not cutting any trees anywhere with those who see trees as a renewable resource. I honestly don't know where the common ground is.

"That's one reason I like to come down here," Cooper says of Duke. "You can come together and debate issues in a rational forum. Duke is a great place to come back to."