diff --git a/catalyst/base/stagebase.py b/catalyst/base/stagebase.py
index 2dcf6d71..a2c26316 100644
--- a/catalyst/base/stagebase.py
+++ b/catalyst/base/stagebase.py
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ def __init__(self, myspec, addlargs):
             "compression_mode",
             "cxxflags",
             "decompressor_search_order",
+            "env",
             "fcflags",
             "fflags",
             "hostuse",
@@ -1097,6 +1098,10 @@ def chroot_setup(self):
             shutil.copy(self.settings['envscript'],
                         self.settings['chroot_path'] + '/tmp/envscript')
 
+        if "env" in self.settings:
+            with open(self.settings['chroot_path'] + '/tmp/envscript', "a+") as myf:
+                myf.write("export %s" % self.settings["env"])
+
         # Copy over /etc/hosts from the host in case there are any
         # specialties in there
         hosts_file = self.settings['chroot_path'] + '/etc/hosts'