What started as a single-hall pilot is now one of the largest zero waste programs in Pitt Housing. For the 2026–2027 academic year, the Generation Conscious laundry sheet dispenser program has grown from Lothrop Hall’s original 700 residents to more than 5,300 residents across 10 buildings: Brackenridge Hall, Forbes-Craig, Holland Hall, Litchfield Towers, Lothrop Hall, Pennsylvania Apartments, Residences on Bigelow, Ruskin Hall, Sutherland Hall, and Wellington Apartments.
The dispensers eliminate consumer packaging, and the sheets are made without water, reducing both the waste and carbon impact of doing laundry on campus. Best of all, they remain free to residents, available right from a dispenser in the laundry room.
Generation Conscious laundry detergent sheets produce 50 to 70% fewer carbon emissions than other laundry detergents, and the non-toxic, hypoallergenic, cruelty-free formula helps eliminate plastic packaging and reduce water use compared to conventional liquid detergent.
Since 2024, this student initiative has helped residents skip hundreds of single-use plastic detergent jugs and avoid tens of thousands of dollars in laundry sheet costs campus-wide, all while cutting CO2 emissions compared to conventional liquid detergent.
Generation Conscious is a certified minority-owned business enterprise, started by CEO and Founder G.L., who grew up near a waste transfer station in Jamaica, Queens, New York City. Seeing the health impacts of the waste station on his community motivated him to build a company focused on eliminating single-use plastics in everyday products. In 2023, Generation Conscious won a “Reusie” award for Most Innovative Reuse Company in the Consumer Packaged Goods category.
The program’s roots go back to February 2024, when Pitt Housing piloted the dispensers in Lothrop Hall, funded by both the Pitt Green Fund and a Year of Emotional Wellbeing grant. Pitt Green Fund supports student-initiated projects that advance campus sustainability, and the pilot grew out of student research in Pitt’s GEOL 1333L Sustainability Project Management course.
Pitt Housing continues to build on this momentum through other sustainability initiatives, including energy conservation upgrades like replacing incandescent light bulbs with energy efficient LED light bulbs, installing a solar array on Ruskin Hall, and collecting thousands of pounds of material during move out each year through Move Out Clean Out.