As university officials shoveled dirt to make room for a tree near the Simon Power Plant located on Service Road, the act signified something more than just adding to the landscape.

Administrators signed an agreement Tuesday to make MSU the newest member of the Chicago Climate Exchange to improve the natural environment on campus.

The exchange program, or CCX, is the world's first and North America's only legally binding rules-based greenhouse gas emissions allowance trading system. Now that MSU is a member of the program, university officials must reduce the university's overnight carbon dioxide emissions by 1 percent each year. Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is used in commercial items such as beverage carbonation and fire extinguishers.

"The whole theory behind it is to make the university into a carbon-neutral environment," said Kathy Lindahl, MSU's assistant vice president of finance and operations.

Creating a carbon-neutral environment means the amount of carbon emissions the university takes in would become the same as the university's output of the gas — which would eliminate the current imbalance, Lindahl said.

Joining the program makes MSU one of more than 200 members that include Ford Motor Co. and computer giant IBM, which also uses this exchange to help better the environment.

"This is about starting a process by using markets as a tool to cause an effective reduction in greenhouse gas emissions," said Michael Walsh, CCX senior vice president and MSU alumnus. "MSU fits in this category because of its tremendous research and implementation capabilities in areas like agriculture, forestry and engineering."

MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said participating in the program allows students — such as Chelsea McMellen, an English and environmental studies and applications senior — to become more involved with real-world problems.

"It is critical that MSU has become a part of this organization, and MSU's participation in CCX will become a vital part in the education of students," McMellen said. "Student involvement becomes critical, too, because students have to go out and experience everything like this."

Simon said she was glad to see the university becoming more involved with its environmental awareness.

"The plant has significance to me because it was meant to recognize my father-in-law and all the work he did on energy while at MSU," Simon said.

"It is also important to this project because the power plant represents the values of the university for the 21st century."