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The latest corporate responsibility report from InBev is fascinating stuff. The brewer supplies data about how it is reducing water use, instituting responsible drinking programs and donating to worthy causes.

Few would argue that InBev, the notoriously tough-minded company, went all fuzzy wuzzy on us. If anything, the report - which tracks the years 2005-2007, before the company took over Anheuser-Busch - seems to indicate the brewer’s penchant for bringing hard-edged analysis to every task. The company likes to say it sets ambitious but attainable goals in its two “areas of focus”: promoting responsible drinking and sound environmental management practices.

To wit: The company’s used 5 hectoliters of water to make 1 hectoliter of beer in 2007, down from 5.25 two years before. By 2010, the company wants to use only 3.75 hectoliters of water to produce a hectoliter of beer or soft drinks. Similarly, the company’s wastewater produced per hectoliter of beer fell to 3.41 hectoliters in 2007 from 3.74 in 2005. It wants to trim that further - down to 3.1 hectoliters - by 2010.

Guess we’ll have to check back and see how these efforts go. In any case, InBev seems pumped about its initiates, using the word “dream” no fewer than 11 times in the 40-page report, which outlines various good deeds:

• Since the occurrence of the Sichuan earthquake in May 2008, InBev’s China breweries have donated 2 million Chinese yuan (about $300,000 at today’s exchange rates) to local governments and the Red Cross. Donations from employees across China were matched by the company.

• In 2008, InBev’s Serbian operations donated $35,000 (again, at today’s exchange rates) to construct “Apatinska House,” a pavilion in Pancveo, Serbia to accommodate blind or partially-sighted people lacking adequate accommodation.

• In Argentina, InBev runs a program called Traveling Backpack (‘Mochila Viajera’), a traveling children’s library that aims to bring books to children and strengthen family gatherings around reading. The project has reached more than 5,500 students and approximately 4,500 families as well as 450 teachers.

• Over three years, the company reduced energy consumption (per hectoliter of beer produced) by 22 percent.

InBev also said it planned to have at least one responsible drinking up and running in 30 of the nations in which it operates.

Let it not be said that Lager Heads only focuses on the negative. When it comes to InBev’s charitable giving (or Anheuser-Busch InBev’s, as we might say now,) we give credit where credit is due. And we also give scrutiny when it’s called for. In any case, we report…you decide.

Reporter’s note: In an earlier version of this post, we erroneously said InBev wanted to use 4.5 hectoliters of water to make a hectoliter of beer by 2010. The target is actually more ambitious: 3.75 hectoliters.