For the Greening the Industrial City competition, participants are asked to design and submit a masterplan proposal for an industrial park that was built over a natural waterway. The proposal would need to find clever ways to expose the natural beauty of the waterway underneath the industrial park, as well as address neighbourhood concerns.

Houston, Texas, the fourth largest city in the US, is the largest metropolitan area in the US without zoning regulations. As a result, the city is a patchwork of uses with industrial and commercial zones ensconced in residential neighbourhoods. These industrial zones were often distributed in a way that disproportionately impacted low-income communities and communities of colour, subjecting residents to pollution, noise, and decreased neighbourhood quality. 

The top entries from the Greening the Industrial City competition will be critiqued by in-person jurors following a TEDxHouston Countdown event. The countdown is a series of TED talks focused on innovative solutions and thought leadership in addressing the effects of global warming. Selected competition entries will be displayed in the auditorium of the TEDxHouston Countdown speaker series.