A novel sustainable approach for enhancing the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) involves the utilization of a combination of ZnO and carbon dots (CDs) derived from Citrus medica fruit extract, along with microwave-synthesized TiO2 nanoparticles for the preparation of the photoanode. Natural dyes such as Hibiscus rosa-sinensis and Allium Cepa peel are employed as sensitizers to reduce production costs. This co-activation method has demonstrated a significant improvement in the output parameters of the devices. Notably, the photoanode co-activated with ZnO-CD composite (ZnO-CD/TiO2) exhibits the most favorable output parameters when combined with Hibiscus rosa-sinensis dye (open circuit voltage (Voc)=0.80 V, short circuit current density (Jsc)= 6.62 mA/cm2, fill factor (FF)=64.20%, photo conversion efficiency (PCE)= 3.40%) and Allium Cepa peel dye (Voc= 0.81V, Jsc= 6.79 mA/cm2, FF= 65.70%, PCE= 3.61%). When paired with Allium Cepa dye, the CD modified photoanode (CD/TiO2) offers Voc =0.73 V, Jsc =6.64 mA/cm2, FF =61.27% and PCE= 2.97%. Similarly, when combined with Hibiscus rosa-sinensis dye, the output parameters of the CD/TiO2 photoanode are Voc =0.72 V, Jsc =6.54 mA/cm2, FF =64.4% and PCE= 3.03%. In comparison to all tested devices, the unmodified photoanode (TiO2) displayed the lowest performance, with parameters such as Voc= 0.59 V, Jsc= 6.45 mA/cm2, FF= 52.5%, PCE= 2.10% using Allium Cepa peel dye, and Voc =0.66 V, Jsc =6 mA/cm2, FF =51.60%, PCE= 2.04% using Hibiscus rosa-sinensis dye. Furthermore, the co-activation process has been shown to enhance the stability of the devices. While the unmodified photoanodes ceased to operate after eight days, the ZnO-CD composite co-activated photoanodes retained their initial efficiencies up to 61.50% and 68.53% with the Allium Cepa peel dye and Hibiscus rosa-sinensis dye, respectively. Therefore, this study underscores the potential of the synthesized composite material in enhancing the performance of natural DSSCs.