diff --git a/browserid/lib/email.js b/browserid/lib/email.js
index 9e117c5b5e0918257b390e5596ee742a5085ed3b..2d8bcde168a39da31eac08a666374c1172bb857e 100644
--- a/browserid/lib/email.js
+++ b/browserid/lib/email.js
@@ -42,6 +42,20 @@ mustache = require('mustache'),
 config = require('../../libs/configuration.js'),
 logger = require('../../libs/logging.js').logger;
 
+/* if smtp parameters are configured, use them */
+var smtp_params = config.get('smtp');
+console.log("SMTP", smtp_params);
+if (smtp_params && smtp_params.host) {
+  emailer.SMTP = { host: smtp_params.host };
+  logger.info("delivering email via SMTP host: " +  emailer.SMTP.host);
+  if (smtp_params.user) {
+    logger.info("authenticating to email host as" +  emailer.SMTP.user);
+    emailer.SMTP.use_authentication = true;
+    emailer.SMTP.user = smtp_params.user;
+    emailer.SMTP.pass = smtp_params.pass;
+  }
+}
+
 const template = fs.readFileSync(path.join(__dirname, "prove_template.txt")).toString();
 
 var interceptor = undefined;
diff --git a/libs/configuration.js b/libs/configuration.js
index 2b6f9b1ad51b7ab4a8b14e1d7d209800f951d291..ab43bbcb58f104b752c1abffca5215b5b0407ebe 100644
--- a/libs/configuration.js
+++ b/libs/configuration.js
@@ -109,6 +109,16 @@ g_configs.local =  {
   certificate_validity_ms: g_configs.production.certificate_validity_ms
 };
 
+Object.keys(g_configs).forEach(function(config) {
+  if (!g_configs[config].smtp) {
+    g_configs[config].smtp = {
+      host: process.env['SMTP_HOST'],
+      user: process.env['SMTP_USER'],
+      pass: process.env['SMTP_PASS']
+    };
+  }
+});
+
 // test environments are variations on local
 g_configs.test_json = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(g_configs.local));
 g_configs.test_json.database = { driver: "json", unit_test: true };