But no holiday on this occasion. Quite the opposite - a conference of North American lawyers, and a speaking slot on the vagaries of law making in the European Union and the proliferation of EU law and policy on energy and climate change.

As always with these visits, I'll be the only Brit present, and so this will be an opportunity to fly the flag for Birmingham (the original West Midlands version). It will also be an opportunity not to be missed to remind our US friends who won the Ryder Cup.

I see from my schedule that I've also got myself roped into an expert panel on US Coal Exports. The US is enjoying a shale gas revolution currently, which in conjunction with tough environmental regulation is killing off US demand for coal - what they call their "War on Coal". So they're shipping out their black stuff around the world to anyone who'll take it - mainly Europe, India and China. Interestingly, and somewhat paradoxically given our very own war on coal, US coal exports to Europe are increasing.

Anyway, at 30,000 feet up and availing myself of BA's hospitality as I wash down a plate of Cornish brie with a second glass of port, I'm racked by guilt (only slightly). These trips do nothing for my firm's carbon footprint - which as a founder member of the Legal Sector Alliance we publish each year, and which at the last count was just over 5 tonnes per head - predominantly accounted for by our electricity and gas consumption in our buildings, and business travel.

Whilst I tell myself that BA were not patiently waiting on my travel plans before deciding whether or not to bother flying to San Diego today, I do feel this rather misses the point. Given most business trips are unavoidable, thoughts turn to carbon offsets.

But I'm not fretting for too long. SGH Martineau is about to re-launch its own flights offset scheme, and I have the new scheme rules to sign off (fittingly) on the flight home.

UK travellers have in general felt detached from the notion of paying an airline a supplement on the flight cost to offset the carbon impact of their seat on the plane through the airline's own offset fund. The main reason has been that these schemes have tended to focus on overseas projects, and take up has been poor. Indeed, last year BA replaced its scheme, one of the better run programmes, with a simpler one focused on UK projects.

My firm's scheme is similar. We encourage our lawyers making a business flight to make a donation to the firm's charitable trust, and under the new rules the firm will match this. A staff committee then spends the proceeds raised at the end of the year. Last time around, we helped fund a biomass composting facility at a local community centre. Not a verified offset, but a project that nonetheless had a degree of staff and community engagement.

So, with conscience temporarily soothed, I can put my pen down and gaze back dreamily through the small window and out over the icy wilderness of Southern Greenland. Perhaps someone can rustle me up some more cheese.