In support of the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Leadership Commitments, the University of Maryland College Park (UMD) has established a goal to become climate neutral by 2050. While much progress has been made to lower the University’s carbon footprint across multiple emissions sectors, tree conservation or restoration has traditionally been excluded due to concerns about the reliability and consistency of the science. For the past several years, faculty and students in UMD’s Department of Geographical Sciences have been working with state governments across the region to inform climate action planning with advanced forest carbon science. However, with student support and leadership, we identified an opportunity to retool this same science to help UMD “walk the walk” and advance our own forest climate goals in parallel with Maryland and other U.S. Climate Alliance states. By partnering with the Office of Sustainability and other land management entities, we have been able to directly inform the campus climate action plan with robust forest carbon estimates as well as influence and support the carbon budgeting process of all universities that have pledged support for the “Carbon Commitment.” Unlike state governments, the university’s approach to sustainability broadly follows that of a corporation, requiring enhanced collaboration to ensure the science is provided in user-relevant formats while remaining consistent with science approaches utilized by state partners. Our experience during the first year of this project underscores the value of building out scientific approaches that meet specific stakeholder needs while remaining poised to adapt these tools in support of new partnerships and collaborations.