ConstructionClare BurnettTue 13 Oct 26
The Australian ‘Serial Entrepreneur’ Selling Sand to the Saudis
Ledlin Group founder and serial entrepreneur Oscar Ledlin hasn’t come this far without ambition, but his latest plans are taking him further than before.
Ledlin spoke to The Urban Developer features editor Leon Della Bosca on the Urbanity Live stage this year for the Blueprint podcast.
The developer said he had gone back to his roots with the Sustainable Concrete Group, which transforms waste glass into engineered aggregates for concrete.
But that means dealing with complex cultural challenges facing the materials sector.
“Carbon is a sensitive topic because most carbon neutral concrete uses fly ash. But no one really talks to or calculates it comes from burning coal,” Ledlin said.
“Our claim is that ours is the world’s greenest, because there’s a circularity benefit, redirecting materials from waste and reducing requirements from dredging and quarrying, so we’re doing our part to try and reduce that.”
And the entrepreneur is taking his ambitions abroad, with heads of agreement signed in Dubai and Saudi Arabia.
“Our machinery can also convert desert sand into concrete sand,” Ledlin said.
“Desert sand, of which there is plenty in the Middle East, can’t be used in construction because the winds have blown over the grains for however many thousand years, so the sand particles are round rather than being coarse or square.
“It’s like trying to build concrete out of marbles.
“So we’re starting commercial partnerships abroad to set up overseas and see if we can sell sand to the Saudis,” he said.
Find out more about Oscar Ledlin’s many and varied pursuits on the Blueprint podcast. Listen on Apple, Spotify or YouTube.
