Here is a copy of the comment I posted at TreeHugger:

Given a sandwich-style ICF like the one Lloyd used to illustrate this article, his points have much more strength. But some other ICFs, like the Insulock blocks, are primarily foam, with cores for pouring concrete and adding re-steel. Using these helps to significantly reduce the amount of concrete needed versus either a sandwich style ICF or a traditional concrete basement wall. An 8" Insulock wall also offers R-38 insulation, versus R-22 for an 8" Eco-Block with 4" concrete. But either one is vastly better than an uninsulated 8" concrete foundation wall.

For above grade construction, it is not even necessary to fill all the cores, enabling further savings in material and embodied energy.

I agree that there are many cases where using ICFs above grade is not the most efficient use of resources. But some other comments to this have already pointed out cases where someone might reasonably choose to use that approach. To those others, let me add a case where a building was being built by a crew with only limited skills. Fewer kinds of materials going into a building also means fewer supply trucks making deliveries to the site.