Georgia Southern University’s Center for Sustainability is painting Statesboro green with GreenFest, an event promoting sustainable solutions and encouraging a smart lifestyle.

GreenFest, sponsored by Gulfstream, will take place this Saturday on the Bulloch County courthouse lawn from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event is free to the public and will feature workshops, vendors and a community service opportunity.

The festival will feature a variety of vendors along with interactive workshops which attendees can learn how to build rain barrels, worm compost bins and how to weatherproof their homes.

While students in a dorm do not need to weather-strip their doors and windows, there are other options available at the event that teach students to save money while adapting to a smart lifestyle.

The first 30 people to attend these workshops will be able to take home their new sustainable solutions. Also to be featured are presentations that include a green puppet show by the Statesboro Regional Library, live music and yoga demonstrations.

“It’s an action packed day, every half hour we have something new,” Christina Beslin, graduate assistant at the Center for Sustainability, said.

The event is based off of the Center for Sustainability’s previous event, The Sustainability Fair, but has grown since it began gathering vendors the first day of classes.

“This is a new launch. We want to educate people that there are simple ways to live a greener life and give them those solutions right then and there,” Dr. Lissa Leege, director of the Center of Sustainability, said.

GreenFest features a large group of businesses and organizations from the Averitt Center for the Arts displaying art made of repurposed materials to Vaden Nissan showcasing their fully electric car.

Patrons will be able to purchase sustainable products and gain information about how to take better care of the planet. One of the vendors, Books-A-Million, will be having a book sale on Saturday and 10 percent of all purchases will go to the Center For Sustainability.

Along with the events taking place on the courthouse lawn, Keep Bulloch Beautiful will be hosting its seventh annual Rivers Alive community service project, where volunteers go out to clean riverbeds.

This year Rivers Alive decided to work together with GreenFest and it was a natural fit, Kelly Collingsworth, Keep Bulloch Beautiful director, said.

Volunteers can sign up online or you can sign up at the event at 9 a.m.

“It’s fun because it brings the community and the college together,” Beslin said, “The main goal is to educate people on environmental and sustainable options for their homes and their lives.”